adminMelody Baya Court Reporter
A MAN will do 313 hours of community service for sleeping with his landlord’s 15-year-old daughter. Fortune Dube, 24, of Njube suburb appeared before Provincial magistrate Abednico Ndebele facing a charge of sleeping with a minor. He pleaded guilty and Ndebele sentenced him to a wholly suspended 18 months in prison.
“The first nine months are going to be suspended on condition that you don’t commit a similar offence in the next five years. The other nine months are going to be suspended on condition that you perform 313 hours of community service at Western Commonage court,” said Ndebele.
The magistrate said the law was going to play its part in protecting the girl child from male predators. “You need to keep away from our young girls. The law will always be there to protect them.
“The law essentially says that girls under the age of 16 aren’t capable of making informed decisions about having sexual intercourse,” said Ndebele.
Prosecuting, Steward Madzore said on a date not known but in the month of November 2015, Dube proposed love to the minor and she accepted.
“In the month of December 2015 the accused and complainant had consensual sexual intercourse,” said Madzore.
The prosecutor said the matter came to light in February this year when the girl’s father stumbled on text messages in her phone.
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