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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Gwanda Correspondent
A 28-YEAR-OLD herdsman from Gwanda has been jailed 12 years for raping his employer’s daughter after she had been left under his custody.
The man from Guyu area who cannot be named to protect his victim pleaded not guilty to rape but was convicted due to overwhelming evidence by Gwanda regional magistrate, Mrs Sibonginkosi Mkandla.
He was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment of which three years were suspended on condition that he does not commit a similar offence within the next five years.
Prosecuting, Mr Khumbulani Nyoni said the accused person raped the complainant who is aged 11 on March 7 after she had been left under his custody by her mother who had gone to attend a funeral.
“On March 7 the complainant and her two siblings aged eight and six years were left under the custody of the accused person by their mother who had gone to attend a funeral. He took advantage and went into the bedroom where the complainant was sleeping with her siblings in the middle of the night,” he said.
“The accused person started fondling the complainant which awakened her. The complainant screamed upon realising that there was someone in the bedroom but the accused person told her to remain quiet as he had only come to check up on them. The accused person then told the complainant that he wanted to have sexual intercourse with her but she refused. He then raped the complainant and threatened to assault her if she reported the matter to anyone.”
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