Online Reporter
Zvikomborero Parafini
Zimpapers Reporter
SELF-PROCLAIMED prophet Gathry Chiredzero “Madzibaba Gathry” has been described as a manipulative sadist who is a danger to society, as Harare Regional Magistrate Estere Chivasa jailed him for 20 years for raping a 13-year-old girl.
In a detailed judgment delivered yesterday, Magistrate Chivasa also sentenced Chiredzero’s wife, Diana Chauke, to an effective 15 years in prison as an accomplice after finding that she actively assisted in the rape.
The girl’s mother, who had been jointly charged with the couple, was acquitted after the court accepted that she acted under duress after allegedly being threatened with a firearm.
Handing down judgment, Magistrate Chivasa said the child’s testimony was remarkably consistent with both the medical evidence and the account given by her mother.
“I found her to be a credible witness. She managed to answer the questions put to her and remained consistent even under cross-examination.”
Magistrate Chivasa said the child gave a chilling account of the assault and displayed no signs that she had been coached, despite Chiredzero’s attempts to get the court to accept that her mother had influenced her testimony.
The court also noted that when the child demonstrated what had happened to her, she clearly depicted intimacy which was consistent with the medical findings.
Magistrate Chivasa said all three accused admitted that a disturbing incident had occurred during the healing session, effectively placing themselves at the scene of the offence and in proximity to the girl.
The magistrate further found that the child made a prompt report of the assault, telling her mother the following day, which strengthened the credibility of her allegations.
“The bottom line is that she made a prompt report. There is nothing to suggest that her mother influenced her,” Magistrate Chivasa said.
The court found the evidence surrounding the girl’s clothing was consistent with her account.
Turning to Chauke’s role, Magistrate Chivasa found that she fitted the legal definition of an accomplice because she knowingly facilitated the rape.
The court heard that Chauke suggested that the girl’s mother should allow Chiredzero to be intimate with the child as part of the purported healing process.
She then vacated the matrimonial bedroom, leaving her husband alone with the girl, despite the mother’s repeated objections.
Magistrate Chivasa also found that Chauke retrieved and handed a firearm to Chiredzero, which was used to threaten the complainant’s mother and her children.
“Under normal circumstances, no woman would allow her husband to sleep with another woman. As a couple, they knew why they did it,” the magistrate said.
In acquitting the girl’s mother, Magistrate Chivasa held that the legal requirements for the defence of compulsion had been satisfied.
The magistrate found that the woman, who is illiterate and had sought help for her two mentally challenged children, genuinely believed that the threats to kill her were imminent after a firearm was pointed at her.
The court accepted that she had resisted throughout the ordeal but eventually yielded after being threatened with death and believing there was no reasonable opportunity to escape or resist.
“It was an unfortunate woman who was faced with all these problems,” Magistrate Chivasa said adding that she had become “clay in the hands of the potter” because of her desperation to find healing for her children.
Prosecutor Tracy Mundanga represented the State.
