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Mbedzi raped the 23-year-old woman in a bid to revenge his cousin’s adulterous affair with his (Mbedzi’s) mistress.
Mbedzi (26) had denied the charge of rape when his trial opened before the border town’s resident magistrate Mr Owen Tagu but he was convicted on the strength of evidence provided by the State.
He was sentenced to 15 years in jail, but the court suspended five years of the sentence for five years on condition of good behaviour.
Charges against Mbedzi arose on October 25, 2009, when he went to the woman’s homestead in Chinavazvimi Village and lied to her that husband had been arrested for stocktheft and was to appear at the village court the following day. He then put up in one of the huts at the homestead. The following day at around 7am, Mbedzi led the woman, who had a baby strapped on her back towards the village court to attend the
trial of her accused husband. Along the way, Mbedzi threatened the victim that she was also in trouble since she was married to a criminal.
When they had walked for 10km and near Thome River, Mbedzi told the woman that he had lied about the stocktheft case.
He then told her that he wanted to be intimate with her because her husband, who is Mbedzi’s cousin, was having an adulterous affair with his mistress.
The proposal was, however, turned down prompting Mbedzi to draw a knife from his pocket and threatened to kill the victim and her baby. Mbedzi, the court heard, then force-marched the woman to a secluded area along the river where he raped her once.
After committing the offence he threatened the woman with death if she reported the incident to anyone.
He disappeared into the bush.
A report was made leading to Mbedzi’s arrest after evading police for three weeks.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter