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Noah Pito in Karoi
One of the three sugar daddies who made headlines last week for sleeping with a 13-year-old Grade 7 pupil was sentenced to four years in jail by Karoi magistrate. Chamunorwa Mudengezerwa (45), a barber in Karoi, will, however, serve three years after magistrate Mr Obidience Matare suspended a year of the sentence on condition he does not commit a similar offence within the next five years.
In sentencing Mudengezerwa recently, Mr Matare said in this day of high prevalence of HIV and Aids, it was paramount that vulnerable children were protected.He said the age difference between Mudengezerwa and the minor was the main consideration when assessing appropriate sentence.
He said the older the transgressor, the higher the moral blameworthiness.“There is a 30-year difference between accused and complainant. Complainant only turned 13 in July 2016, so this is a borderline case which could have fallen into a rape category,” he said.
As part of his defence Mudengezerwa had said that he first met the girl one night when he was drunk enjoying a live musical show at around 11pm.He further said that he thought she was one of the prostitutes and not a minor, only to discover that she had no breasts when he took her to his barber shop for sexual intercourse.
He said after giving her a dollar and dismissing her without any sexual intercourse that night, the girl later continued to come back to his barber shop asking for food and other items such as covers and pencils. In coming up with the sentence the court also considered that Mudengezerwa had taken advantage of the level of neglect the girl was facing from her parents thus offering her small amounts of money to cover his back.
The girl’s parents separated some time back and she stays with her father and brother in a two roomed house where she sleeps in one room while the father uses the other. The brother sleeps next door due to shortage of accommodation.
The fate of the other two suspects will be heard tomorrow.It was the State’s case that sometime in August this year, Mudengezerwa (45) proposed love to the girl after inviting her to his barbershop. Before she left the barbershop Mudengezerwa gave her a 25 cent bond coin to buy sweets.Around 8pm on the same day Mudengezerwa invited the girl to his barbershop taking advantage of her father who was boozing at a local beer hall.
Online Reporter