adminSenior Court Reporter
A RUSAPE woman who was testifying in the case in which her 12-year-old daughter was sexually abused by a local famous teacher during “the banned” extra lessons broke down during cross-examination bringing proceedings to a halt as prosecution requested for a brief adjournment. The woman (whose name could not be divulged) was the third State witness in the matter in which a Grade Five teacher at a local church school, Benedict Chiro, allegedly sexually abused her daughter during extra lessons. Proceedings were adjourned for 30 minutes as prosecutor, Mr James Wirima, psyched her up.
Rusape regional magistrate Mr Livingstone Chipadza had a few words of wisdom for the woman: “Woman, calm down. You may be asked some tough questions and you are expected to answer. Do not think that she (the lawyer) is being unsympathetic to you. She is only trying to dig for the truth,” said Mr Chipadza.
Chiro allegedly instructed the minor to remain behind after dismissing two other pupils that had turned up for extra lessons and started fondling her breasts before dragging her into his bedroom where he molested her. Chiro claimed that he asked her to stay behind to do corrections, but the girl said the motive was for sexual gratification. Chiro, who attended court in his prison garb, was further remanded in custody. He was expected back in the dock yesterday (Thursday) where he intended to bring his two defence witnesses. A medical report tendered in court revealed that the girl was actually abused. It was in light of the lengthy custodial sentence that the defence lawyer, Mrs Sophia Tsaka, pushed the victim’s mother to the wall by raising questions and suggestions that the witness deemed provocative and prompted her to weep uncontrollably. The lawyer suggested that the woman was not the girl’s biological mother after failing to produce her birth certificate, something that the woman took great exception to.
“Do you want me to bring the midwife who assisted me during birth to come to this court to authenticate my claims that I am her biological mother? Listen to me, I am her mother, we are five and we live in two rooms. The victim and her brother who is seven years sleep on the floor while my young sister and I sleep on the bed.
“The complainant does not sleep in the same room with my sister’s husband as you suggest. I was neither there when she testified, nor did I ask her about the court proceedings because I did not want to disturb her. She is highly traumatised by what happened and has since been transferred to Mutare Provincial Hospital for psycho-social support.
“What I am telling this court is the sleeping arrangement in my house. We sleep in the same room, but in-between there is a kitchen unit,” said the woman.
She disputed suggestions by Mrs Tsaka that the report was fabricated to fix the accused. In denial, the woman insisted that he had no bone to chew with Chiro.
She explained that she was, actually impressed by the quality of tutorials that the child was receiving from him. She said she only took immediate action after her child had told her of the rape incident.
“I was not there when the rape happened. It is the accused and the complainant who knew exactly what happened. They know each other. What I am telling this court is what I was told by the complainant. It is not my fabrication,” she said.
The woman said when the child returned from extra lessons, she noted that her pink skirt was torn and asked her to remove it. She, however, said that by the time police requested it, it had already been washed.
“You are trying to fabricate the case and blow things out of proportion. The victim never testified that her skirt was torn during the rape incident and that you asked her to take it off. You cannot say whether the skirt was torn before or after the incident. Clothes worn by the victim are the key to investigations and the fact that you know that the rape never took place is the reason you did not hand it over to police,” said Mrs Tsaka.
Mrs Tsaka and the witness also clashed over the authenticity of the short letter that the victim allegedly wrote to her friend saying she quit attending Chiro’s lessons because he had raped her. The lawyer insisted that the letter never existed while the witness argued it did. Chiro denied raping the girl.
He said he asked the girl to remain behind so that she could do some corrections. He was, however, inconsistent over the length of time the two were together when asked by his lawyer, prosecutor and the magistrate. At different points he said 30, 20 and 15 minutes.
“I dismissed other two children because they had performed exceptionally well in their Shona composition — Kurumwa Nenyoka.
“I gave the complainant Maths and she got two out of six. I asked her to remain behind and do the corrections. She did the corrections three times and after getting the final question correct I asked her to go.
“This is a false incrimination. I suspect that the victim was unhappy about my insistence that she gets all the questions correct. Dull children often develop hatred for teachers,” said Chiro.
Online Reporter