adminMashudu Netsianda Senior Court Reporter
A BEITBRIDGE clearing agent who impregnated two schools girls after using money as a bait to lure them before later dumping them, has been sentenced to four years in jail.
Rayson Tsvangirai Rushwaya (26) of Dulibadzimu suburb allegedly used his aunt, a Form Four pupil at Vhembe High School to lure her peers into the sex trap.
He lured his victims to his house and hotel rooms where he allegedly gave them either some intoxicating stuff or drugs before sexually abusing them.
Many girls are reported to have falllen victim but only two reported the abuse to the police.
Beitbridge provincial resident magistrate Ms Gloria Takundwa convicted Rushwaya of two counts of kidnapping in terms of section 93(1) (b) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, which makes it an offence to detain a child below 17 years of age without the consent of his or her parents. Rushwaya will serve an effective two years in jail after two years were suspended for five years on condition that he does not within that period commit a similar crime.
In mitigation, he pleaded with the magistrate not to send him to jail and offered to pay a fine and compensate the parents of the victims.
In passing the sentence, Ms Takundwa said the courts had a duty to protect innocent victims of sexual abuse by sending offenders to jail.
The magistrate said although the girls went to Rushwaya willingly, the parents of the two complainants had not relinquished custody of their children.
Prosecuting, Mr Lloyd Mupfungidza said between October and November last year, Rushwaya proposed love to a 17-year-old school girl and she agreed. He then went on to stay with the girl without the consent of her parents. The court heard that when the girl fell pregnant, a misunderstanding ensued between the two lovers. Rushwaya kicked the girl out of his house and she tried to commit suicide before he took her back.
Rushwaya and the complainant had another dispute and he chased the girl away and she reported the matter to the police.
The court heard that in February this year, Rushwaya took another teenager and lived with her without her mother’s consent. He later tried to engage the girl’s mother for lobola negotiations, but the woman refused and took her daughter back home. A month later, the girl fled from home to settle with Rushwaya prompting the girl’s mother to report the matter, leading to Rushwaya’s arrest. – @mashnets.
Online Reporter