adminPatrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
A kwekwe man has been slapped with a 45-year jail term after he raped and infected his eight-year-old niece with HIV.
The 46-year-old-man, of Yellow Snake Honey Mine in Kwekwe, had pleaded not guilty to raping the girl on three occasions when he appeared before Gokwe-Kwekwe regional magistrate, Amos Mbobo.
He was convicted after a full trial and sentenced to 15 years for each count. Mbobo suspended 10 years on condition of good behaviour.
In passing sentence, Mbobo said the man deserved a stiff penalty considering that the child looked up to him for protection as a guardian.
Prosecuting, Robert Ndlala said the man raped his niece on three different occasions and deliberately infected her with HIV.
Ndlala told the court that the man was diagnosed with HIV in 2013 and was staying with the complainant while she was going to school.
He said sometime in December last year on a date unknown to the prosecutor, the man sneaked into the complainant’s bedroom and raped her.
The court heard that the man used the same method to rape the complainant on two different occasions.
Ndlala said the girl told her aunt, who is the man’s wife, that her husband was sexually abusing her. The aunt, however, did not take any action and tried to conceal the heinous act.
The court also heard that the matter finally came to light when the girl visited her grandmother and told her that she had been raped by her uncle on three occasions.
The matter was reported to the police leading to the man’s arrest.
Online Reporter