'I wanted to kill them': Man admits intending to kill pregnant wife

A 27-year-old man charged with one count of murder told the High Court in Suva yesterday that he intended to kill his wife and her unborn baby.

Apisai Madigibuli admitted that he stabbed his pregnant wife to death and deliberately intended to kill their unborn child as well, because he was unhappy with her religious choice, and claimed the unborn child was fathered by another man.

Madigibuli made the admissions during cross-examination regarding his police interview, recorded at CID Headquarters in Suva in 2024.

Under questioning, Madigibuli confirmed he was wearing a white T-shirt, black trousers and black joggers when he checked into the Waimanu Apartments in Suva with his wife on the evening of the alleged murder.

His wife was found dead at the apartment on April 24.

Madigibuli also confirmed that the same clothes were captured on the apartment’s CCTV footage.

When shown the T-shirt in court, he acknowledged there was blood on it.

“That is Kitty’s blood,” he told the court.

“The blood came from inside the room where I stabbed my wife.”

He further admitted that the blood resulted from the stabbing.

The prosecutor pressed him on his intentions.

Madigibuli openly confirmed he knew his wife was four months pregnant when he attacked her.

“It was my intention to kill my wife… and to also kill the child that was inside her belly, so that there was no other child from my wife’s belly to be my children’s sibling,” he said.

When asked if he had shown any care or sympathy for the unborn child, Madigibuli replied: “It is true, Sir.”

He told the court his motive was rooted in marital unhappiness.

“Before we got married, she forced me to marry her because of her religion,” he said. “I was not happy about it… I was also not happy with her pregnancy. I was not happy that another man impregnated her. That’s why I intended to kill them both.”

Madigibuli also admitted buying a kitchen knife specifically to carry out the killing.

He said he filed both sides of the blade to make it sharper “so it would be easier for me when I use it to kill.”

He confirmed the knife shown in court, marked as an exhibit and recovered from the crime scene, was the weapon he used.

He told the court he left the knife embedded in his wife’s neck and did not pull it out.

The cross-examination unfolded as the prosecution replayed key portions of Madigibuli’s 2024 police interview before the High Court.

The trial continues.