Man rapes job-seeker (14)

Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau

A 31-YEAR-OLD Beitbridge man, who offered a 14-year-old girl a job as a domestic worker before raping her three times, has been jailed for an effective 20 years by the Beitbridge Regional Magistrate Court.

In a statement on Monday, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said charges against the man arose on March 10 this year when he found the girl at Mabidi Cattle Sales and took her to his house promising to get her a job as a domestic worker for his mother.

The NPA said the man raped the juvenile three times over two days and the court sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment for the first two counts and a further 20 years for the third count, with the sentences set to run concurrently.

“The accused approached the complainant and offered her a job as a domestic worker for his mother and insisted on taking her to his mother’s village that same day despite her refusing,” said the NPA.

“They arrived at the accused’s homestead at around 9pm and he took her to his bedroom where he raped the victim twice. The following morning, the complainant woke up and found the man had gone out. She then went to his mother’s homestead and started performing household chores.”

The NPA said the man later came back and advised his mother that the complainant was her domestic worker.

On the same night, the complainant went to sleep at the home of the convict’s mother but he later sneaked into the room she was sleeping in.

He forced her to go to his bedroom where he raped her for the third time and the matter came to light when her grandmother found her at the home of the convict’s mother.

The complainant narrated her ordeal and the matter was reported to the police.