adminNoleen Makhurane Court Reporter
A 31-YEAR-OLD man from Bulawayo was yesterday sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for raping his nine-year-old niece. The man who was convicted on his own plea by Abednico Ndebele will, however, serve an effective 17 years in jail after three years were conditionally suspended. In his defence, the accused told the court that “he was not himself” when he committed the crime.
“I’m not sure what got into me. I only realised that I’d done an unspeakable thing after I finished raping her,” he said.
Prosecuting Concilia Ncube said that on September 15, at around 5PM, the complainant was on her way home from school when the accused offered her water to drink while holding her hand. The court heard that the accused later raped the complainant once.
derick.khumalo