Community service for schoolboy (14)

Herald Correspondent
A Karoi magistrate last week ordered a Form 1 schoolboy from Chief Kazangarare’s area in Hurungwe to swap part of his December holidays for 105 hours of community work after convicting him of having sexual intercourse with an under-age girl.Magistrate Mr Obedience Matare initially slapped the 14-year-old boy with a three-month jail term before he suspended the sentence upon considering mitigation from the probation officer’s report.

The juvenile, according to part of the officer’s report, is a first offender who had been influenced by peer pressure to prematurely indulge in sex.

The court ordered the boy’s father to surrender his identity card which he would only get back after providing proof that his son would have completed the community service sentence.

The boy would start serving the sentence on December 9. The juvenile’s case arose on October 5 when the boy met a 13-year-old girl in a grazing area.

After he sweet-talked the girl into accepting his love proposal, the two agreed to meet around 5pm that day at a venue where they could chit-chat over their new relationship.

The two later met at a spot on the outskirts of the girl’s homestead. As it was getting dark, the girl’s mother became worried about her whereabouts, prompting her to search in the fields bordering the courtyard.

As she waded through the grassy contour ridges in the nearby field, she got the shock of her life to discover the two “lovebirds” in the act.
Although the boy managed to escape after outpacing the girl’s mother who made efforts to catch him, the woman took the matter to the boy’s parents before she also reported the case to the police who eventually arrested him.

Mr Webster Dimingo prosecuted.