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A British businessman may not stand trial for allegedly butchering his wife and two children at their sprawling £1.3million home in the UK for years, it emerged today.
Mark Tshuma, 45, a British citizen of Zimbabwean heritage, is accused of the brutal murder of his wife and their children at the family's mansion in Bedfordshire earlier this month.
Nothabo Tshuma, 42, and daughters Natalie, 15, and Nala, five, were found dead at the family home in Great Denham on July 6. They were victims of 'blunt force trauma'.
But before the bodies were found, business executive Tshuma had flown to South Africa where he allegedly bought an unlicensed firearm in Johannesburg.
And when he appeared in court there, it became apparent that a separate criminal charge in relation to that illegal gun could delay his extradition for months or even years.
Athlenda Mathe, a South African police spokesperson, told reporters outside court that a charge in relation to the gun he was found with meant Tshuma would 'have to be tried, [and, if convicted] sentenced and to serve that sentence' before being extradited to the UK.
Illegal possession of a firearm carries a maximum sentence of 15 years' imprisonment for a first-time offender under South African law.
'According to our investigation, after landing in South Africa he went to one of the townships and bought this particular unlicensed firearm,' Mathe said, adding that police suspected he may have intended to use it to take his own life.
Tshuma was arrested in the Johannesburg suburb of Kensington after an international manhunt.
He appeared before a magistrates' court in Johannesburg where proceedings for the gun charge and extradition were postponed.
Tshuma spoke briefly to confirm his name and to request that proceedings be conducted in English as relatives watched from the public gallery.
'His family did not harbour him,' Mathe said.
The Crown Prosecution Service in the UK has authorised three charges of murder.
Mathe said the South African authorities had received a provisional extradition request and were awaiting supporting evidence.
Police said the suspect used his UK passport to fly from Heathrow via Dubai to Johannesburg, where he checked into a hotel in the upmarket suburb of Sandton before moving to addresses in Kensington.
Tshuma's LinkedIn profile states that he studied management information systems at Solusi University in Zimbabwe before attending the University of Plymouth and City St George's, University of London.
His wife worked as an associate director specialising in the detection of financial crimes such as money laundering and fraud.
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