Chronicle Editor
Freedom Mupanedemo, Midlands Bureau
A 15-year-old girl from Shurugwi has been admitted to the district hospital’s maternity ward after delivering a baby from a pregnancy she only revealed was rape by her father when she went into labour.
The girl concealed her pregnancy for eight months and it only came to light recently after she suddenly went into labour and was rushed to hospital.
“It was during labour that she told her mother and the midwives who attended to her that she was raped by her father eight months ago,” said a nurse at Shurugwi District Hospital.
The nurse said the girl was still at the hospital’s maternity ward, adding that the health institution was liaising with a local orphanage home so that the girl could be taken there for her and the baby’s care.
The 34-year-old father has since been arrested and appeared before Shurugwi magistrate, Mrs Percy Mukumba, facing charges of raping his daughter.
He was not asked to plead and was remanded in custody to August 11.
The court requested for DNA tests of the father and the child.
It was heard that sometime in October 2020, the father took his daughter to a bush near Lundi Bridge along the Shurugwi-Zvishavane Road where he raped her on the pretext that he was fulfilling some rituals.
Mrs Tafadzwa Guzete prosecuted.
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