adminSukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
A GRADE 7 pupil impregnated by a herdsman has told The Chronicle that her abuser slept with her in the same room as her younger siblings — and gave them sweets to buy their silence.The 13-year-old, from Khame in Bulilima, says she did not have “much knowledge” of what she was doing engaging in sex.
Unbelievably, her abuser, Conscience Nleya, got away with a ticking off from a Plumtree magistrate who sentenced him to perform 315 hours of community service following his conviction for having “sexual intercourse with a minor”.
After sentencing Nleya — who was earlier reported as being 27-years-old when he is in fact 19 — to 12 months in jail, the magistrate wholly suspended the prison term, crediting the child molester for “good behaviour”.
The teenager’s widowed father, who cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity, told The Chronicle in an exclusive interview that he was “deeply pained” by the loss of his child’s innocence.
The 50-year-old, who survives from thatching huts in the village, told of how he had bought uniforms for his “intelligent” daughter to start Form 1 this year.
She had scored 13 points in her Grade 7 exams and had been offered a place at Phakama Secondary School. She dropped out after just one week.
The heartbroken dad, reacting to the shock sentence, said there was “no punishment sufficient enough to compensate for the damage inflicted on my daughter”.
The abuse happened right under his nose as the daring child sex predator — whom he had employed to mind his cattle — used small gifts to get her to sleep with him. Her two other children who could have blown the whistle were bought off with sweets and crisps.
The young girl, spotting her bulging tummy, told The Chronicle: “I started being intimate with Nleya in December last year. My aunt is the first person who suspected that I was pregnant and she told my father. When they questioned me, I wasn’t even sure of what they were talking about. It didn’t quite make sense being told I could be pregnant.
“Conscience told me that he loved me in November last year and we started being intimate in December, but I didn’t have much knowledge on what we were doing.”
Nleya, who was free to roam around his employer’s home without any alarm being raised, slept with the teenager even as her father slept in another hut just metres away.
During the day, Nleya would arrive in the absence of the teenager’s father and they would have sex in her bedroom hut.
Nleya would also arrive in the middle of the night while her father was asleep, and he would spend the night with her and leave early the next morning. Her two younger siblings — a boy and a girl — would be asleep just feet away.
“Each time he had sex with me, he would give my younger siblings some sweets to stop them from revealing what they saw or heard,” she said.
Nleya would suggest the time and place of their next meeting, she said.
And her father says his dream to give his children a better future through education has been shattered. Even with a modest education himself, he says he values education.
“This girl is my first born child. She is very intelligent and loves school. I saw her as our only hope out of this poverty,” he says ruefully, his pain etched in the contours on his face.
“I had bought all the uniforms and books after saving money for her to start her Form 1 this year. Her mother died eight years back, leaving me to look after our three children.
“This pregnancy came as a shock as I didn’t suspect that anything of the sort was going on. I looked at her as my small, innocent child. Someone saw a woman, a wife even.”
He told of his deep regret that “the money that I spent on her school fees has gone to waste.”
He said Nleya, who is also from the same village, did not have the capacity to fend for his daughter as he was fully dependant on his parents.
Nleya’s parents had offered to pay him a cow for “damages”, he said, but were now retreating, citing that he had got their son arrested.
He said the duty of paying medical bills for his daughter was now all his burden because Nleya’s parents, who are also his distant relatives, had become hostile.
“I struggle to earn money and now I have an extra responsibility on my hands. I don’t even know how I will manage,” he said.
The teenager, who was born on June 27, 2001, told The Chronicle she was eager to return to school after giving birth. Her pregnancy is five-months-old.
Online Reporter