Television news producer Stephen Rice has been arrested while working in Zimbabwe - three years after he was jailed on assignment in Lebanon.
The Australian journalist, Rice, flew into Zimbabwe to film a money-spinning documentary on baby parentage, all based on probative DNA suggestions.The Australian journalist, is well known for making money from creating fake drama and has been fired before following a "baby kidnap" scandal.
The latest development explains how and why there was a total media blackout against Zimbabwean journalists who for several months could broadcast Abigail Prangs' own living room since 2018, but now at the point of meeting Abi's "parents," Australian journalists suddenly perform everything under the cover of darkness- They fly into Zimbabwe and even the national broadcaster, ZBC is not allowed near them. Why, and what is so secretive about a story publicly known in Harare since 1983? Why should foreigners be the ones to report on what they only read?
The man, Stephen Rice intended to make money out of the Abigail Prangs story, the Zimbabwean baby found dumped in 1983 documentary which StarFM and ZimEye have worked on since last year.
The development comes after Abigail had skipped vital stages of the DNA tests. She had even avoided the local Zimbabwean DNA centre fully equipped and which was still in the way to report back on their findings.
Global DNA's Mr Tinashe Mugabe always insisted on further tests despite an initial sibling test (with an alleged sister, Lorraine Kamonere) yielding a passive 90,8% probability.
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| Tinashe Mugabe Speaks Out - We Are Ethical And Upstanding, Global DNA Speaks! |
This was as Mr Mugabe said at this stage, the supposed parents, remained just alleged parents up until conclusive paternal and maternal tests had been conducted. As at the time when Stephen Rice and his filming crew were flying to Zimbabwe, there were none of these tests, the only one is done being a mere half-sibling one.
There was a disturbing twist when Abigail rushed to declare she was now interested in a commercial contract offered for a money-spinning documentary by Mr Rice. She reported to ZimEye that she had signed a contract with the disgraced Australian TV producer, Stephen Rice. Abigail even got to the point of ordering that all news articles produced since 1983 be deleted from the public domain and a new story would be published by the Australian TV producer.
The sudden rush to distort evidence was to the point of even ditching the services of the local DNA centre. Correspondence seen by ZimEye.com shows Mr Rice ordering that Mr Mugabe's services are terminated and a different DNA centre be utilised. In a program on Tuesday, Abi was questioned by ZimEye why she had suddenly disconnected with the Global DNA. She reported back by briefly saying, "I have a lot of respect for Tinashe," still without revealing any reasons why.
The flight from Australia to Zimbabwe came in the face of serious concerns raised by Mr. Mugabe in an earlier StarFM program when while with Tilda Moyo, he revealed that there was no excitement at all on the supposed parent's faces when they heard the news that Abi is their daughter.
Mr Mugabe said, "there was no excitement" which would be expected in such a breakthrough situation. More drama, however, emerged when the supposed father was found suspiciously and repeatedly skipping away every time when the Global DNA staff members descended onto their home. For several months since December last year, Global DNA thrice visited the home in Chitungwiza seeking to complete the investigation.
Now, the 90,8% probability was to suggest that there was a likelihood of the 2 tested individuals sharing a common parent. It was a half-sibling test. However, without further tests the sibling one would be insufficient.
Scientists call the 90,8% as seen in the graph, mere "probative evidence." It is probative, not conclusive evidence.
An elated Abi who reportedly booked into a local hotel soon after arriving in Zimbabwe was pictured in Unit M in Chitungwiza with her supposed relatives two days after her arrival before she disappeared to an unknown location.
She shunned local reporters as she preferred her Australian based journalists despite that the local media houses had publicised her plight ahead of Rice. There was a publicly declared contractual arrangement with Zim media, but she chose to go "for money."
On Friday morning Abigail posted a status update revealing she was sad and disappointed. A day before she had publicly wielded a picture with her supposed mother.
That picture with her so-called mum has since been removed.
Sources close to her revealed that the latest DNA tests show that she is not at all Edna Kamonere's daughter. Sources close to her revealed that the results came out with a 0% probability (for maternity.)
Efforts to get a direct comment from Abi were fruitless at the time of writing. A direct comment from Mr Mugabe was difficult to obtain at the time of printing.
Mr Rice was reached for comment between Wednesday and Friday and he had not replied to messages at the time of publishing. His Zimbabwe-based freelancer, Mr Tomas Brickhill however confirmed the development to ZimEye promising that Rice would be informed.
Global DNA Zimbabwe (hereinafter referred to as “The Company” has noted with concern the press release issued earlier by the Medical Laboratory and Clinical Scientists Council Zimbabwe (hereinafter referred to as the “Council).
Firstly, the company would like to reassure our stakeholders and clients that we are an upstanding and ethical business and we operate within the legal parameters of Zimbabwean law. Global DNA is a legally registered entity in Zimbabwe.
We urge the general public to disregard the false news in circulation concerning our operations being banned. In the interim Global DNA also would like to dispel the rumours that we have been banned from the operation.
We received communication from the Council dated September 17 2021 and we are in communication with the Council to provide the necessary documentation they have since requested. We also would like to highlight that at the time of the issue of the press release, there was no prior communication or consultation with the Global DNA team and we strongly believe this issue would have been resolved without causing unnecessary alarm within the general public.
We also would like to take this time to reassure all our clients of the legality and accuracy of obtained DNA results.
As such, we would like to notify our stakeholders that we are seeking legal recourse and we will issue a detailed press statement in due course.
The full report about the arrest Dailytelegraph.com
