Chronicle Editor
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
THE case in which a 53-year-old man is accused of taking advantage of the absence of his wife to rape their grade one daughter aged nine years in the Tshinwanyani area is set for judgment at the Beitbridge Regional Court this Friday.
The man who cannot be named for fear of exposing the victim will know his fate when he appears before Beitbridge Regional Magistrate Mr Innocent Bepura.
The accused who is standing trial from custody is facing a charge of rape.
Prosecuting, Miss Tsitsi Mutukwa told the court that the accused stayed together with his daughter in the Todi area while her mother was away.
The court heard that sometime in June the girl was intercepted by her grandmother while on her way to school who took her to her homestead, where they started staying together.
However, after school the grandmother would accompany her to the accused’s place to sleep, where the man was sharing the same bedroom and blankets with her.
During one night in June, the man woke up and raped the complainant once.
Later that month a relative living in the same area realised that the accused and accused were sharing same blankets at night and informed her mother.
On august 19, the complainant’s mother took her away from accused and grandmother and interviewed here about the sleeping arrangements and she disclosed the sexual abuse incident.
The matter was then reported to the police resulting in the man’s arrest.
A few months ago, another 53-year-old Beitbridge based cross-border transporter was jailed for 42 years for raping his biological daughter for three years until she fell pregnant.
The man started raping the teenager from August 2020 from the age of 13 until she fell pregnant at the age of 16 years last year
Online Reporter