Online Reporter
YESTERDAY, our main story was about a Zimbabwean woman based in Ireland who told her Syrian colleague that she had a powerful dosage of juju which would protect the duo from being arrested and prosecuted as they committed a crime spree.
Their criminal enterprise saw them rob six vulnerable Irish pensioners of about US$36 000.
Precious Moyo, 38, a care worker, had nursed all the six victims. One of the victims passed away three months after the duo pleaded guilty to the crimes.
One segment of video footage from police investigations showed Moyo holding wads of money in a shop.
Her accomplice was Yamen Alhamada, a Syrian who came to Ireland with family to escape the war in his country, and was now a college engineering student.
Moyo was jailed for eight years while Alhamanda was jailed for six years.
Both pleaded guilty to the charges.
Moyo, a mother of three, blamed isolation from her family, a violent marriage she escaped at home, the depression she has suffered and a drug addiction for turning her into a mobster.
Moyo moved to Ireland five years ago.
She claimed that her father’s death, when she was 13, impacted her and there were also claims she suffered abuse from older men in her community.
Alhamada “spiralled out of control” from cannabis and alcohol abuse that led to a €12,000 drug debt with pressure to pay, and he “never thought of the victims of these offences when he was committing them.”
Judge Keenan Johnson said Moyo had worked for a home help agency for a year, where she developed “intimate” knowledge about the households of the six elderly men and women aged 73 to 89 suffering from serious health problems.
What charmed us was the observation by Judge Johnson who said he did not want people to highlight this case as being indicative of immigrants.
While these crimes damaged the reputation of genuine immigrants, Judge Johnson said it was important that the people of Ireland should not view the two criminals as being representative of all the immigrants who have come and settled in their country.
The judge said the vast majority of immigrants were law abiding and contributed to Irish society.
That is very important because in today’s volatile world, where some extremists will always try to find a reason to advance their evil scheme, some sober voices should always put things into perspective.
That includes making it clear that the criminal activities of a few individuals do not reflect the true picture of Zimbabweans who might have settled in those countries.
The reality is that we will always have some malcontents among us and, even here at home, we have a number of our people who believe in criminal activities.
It’s also true that in Ireland, there are a number of Irish people who also believe in criminal activities. But these people do not represent all the Irish people and Moyo does not represent all of us as Zimbabweans.
