adminFaith Mabuto Midlands Reporter
A MBERENGWA teenager raped his nine-year-old cousin and threatened to brutally assault her if she told anyone, a court heard. The teen, 16, pleaded not guilty to one count of rape but was convicted by Gweru Regional Magistrate Collet Ncube due to overwhelming evidence. The magistrate sentenced the boy to be given four strokes which are to be administered at Whawha Prison.
“Moreover, you’re sentenced to three years wholly suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour,” said Ncube. The magistrate said the boy broke the trust of his cousin and her family. “You deserve to be punished as what you did isn’t morally acceptable. As a brother to the girl, you were supposed to protect her but you broke that trust.”
Ncube said he considered that the juvenile was a first offender who still had a life ahead of him. Prosecuting Emmanuel Matosi told the court that sometime in April this year, the girl was playing with her friends in a backyard at her grandmother’s homestead.
“The 16-year-old boy told her to go to the kitchen hut but she refused. The boy then grabbed her hand and dragged her to the hut,” said Matosi. She was raped once.
Matosi told the court that after raping her, the boy threatened to hurt her if she told anyone. The matter came to light after the girl’s mother noticed some bruises on her genitalia whilst bathing her.
The child said her cousin raped her, the court heard. In another case, Regional Magistrate Morgan Nemadire sentenced a 14-year-old boy from Zvishavane to wholly suspended three years imprisonment, after he sodomised an 11-year-old primary school pupil. The boy had pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated indecent assault.
Online Reporter