adminRufaro Chasinda in Rusape
A BUHERA-based prophet will languish in prison for the next 13 years after he was convicted of rape.Maxwell Charamba (43) of Mudzimu Village under Chief Nyashanu of Buhera was slapped with a stiff penalty after posing as a prophet, yet he had an ulterior motive of raping a teenager (18) from Chitsamatanga Village under Chief Chimombe’s area.
Charamba had initially been sentenced to 18 years by Rusape regional magistrate, Mr Livingstone Chipadza who later suspended five years of the sentence on condition that he does not commit a similar offence.
Rusape Area Prosecutor, Mr Tirivanhu Mutyasira prosecuted.
The court heard that Charamba went to the teenager’s home on July 28 with the intention of holding prayers for her (the complainant’s) grandmother who was not feeling well.
After holding the prayers, he told the family that the spirit had instructed him to go and fetch water in the middle of Save River and he was to be accompanied by the complainant and her uncle (name withheld).
At the river, Charamba ‘baptised’ the teenager before giving her water to take to her grandmother.
They parted ways, with Charamba and the teenager’s uncle going together.
Mr Mutyasira said Charamba later returned to the teenager’s home and lied that the spirit had told him to return since he had made some mistakes when he was anointing the water. He requested to be accompanied back to the river by the teenager.
“Upon arrival at the river, Charamba told the teenager that the spirit had instructed him that they should cross the river and conduct the prayers in the bush after Save River. They proceeded to do the prayers and after they had finished, Charamba instructed the teenager to go back home.
“Before the teenager walked away, Charamba grabbed her by the neck and threatened her with death. He dragged her to a nearby gulley where he raped her once before being disturbed by a passerby. He released the teenager who screamed going back home. She reported the matter to the police leading to Charamba’s arrest,” said Mr Mutyasira.
In his defence, Charamba said it was the devil that got the better of him to commit the offence.
Online Reporter