adminFaith Mabuto Midlands Reporter
A 42-year-old Zvishavane man allegedly impregnated his 15-year-old stepdaughter after raping her at knifepoint before forcing her to terminate the pregnancy.
The man from Chief Mapanzure, yesterday appeared before Gweru regional magistrate, Morgan Nemadire, who remanded him in custody to June 2 for judgment.
He pleaded not guilty saying the allegations were a plot by his wife and her daughter to fix him since the biological father of the complainant wanted to take her away.
“Your worship I don’t know anything about the pregnancy. If I was responsible for the pregnancy, how come when we went to the hospital no tests were done yet she’s accusing me of breaking her virginity?” said the man.
Prosecuting, Prisca Kanhukamwe told the court that on August 5 last year, at about 6.30AM the 42-year-old man was left by his wife in the company of the complainant and her three young brothers.
Kanhukamwe said the complainant’s mother was going to attend a family ceremony in Shurugwi.
“While the complainant was sweeping her bedroom hut in the morning, the accused entered and started fondling her breasts. He later proposed love to her,” she said.
Kanhukamwe said the man even threatened to stab the complainant if she turned down his proposal.
At about 7PM on the same day, when the complainant was asleep in her hut together with her three brothers, the man enered the room and slipped into her blankets, the court heard.
Kanhukamwe said the man whispered that he had come.
She said the man pulled the complainant’s skirt to waist level and removed her panty before raping her in the presence of her siblings.
The court heard that during the period between August 5 to October 7 last year, the man raped his stepdaughter several times.
Kanhukamwe said when the man’s wife returned home from her trip, the complaint told her what had happened in her absence.
She said the mother did nothing about the matter until the complaint told a neighbour who then made a report to the police.
Online Reporter