Rapist gets 22 years

Jim Office had pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape when his trial opened before regional magistrate Mr Clever Tsikwa.
The court, however, convicted him because of overwhelming evidence.
He was sentenced to 30 years on all the three counts of which eight years were suspended on condition of good behaviour.
Office raped the two girls in February this year.
The two girls and their schoolmate, a boy, were on their way home to Zimbabwe Republic Police Support Unit Camp using a road commonly referred to as “Bhinya” Road near Mashonaland Gun Club when Office who was wielding a knife accosted them.
He stopped them and ordered them to surrender their belongings but they had nothing on them. Office force-marched them into the maize fields and ordered them to sit down.
He took the 17 year-old girl a few metres away and ordered her to remove all her clothes before raping her while her two school mates watched.
After raping her he called the 14-year-old girl and also raped her.
He then called the 17-year-old girl and raped her again.
This is when the other girl and the boy escaped and went to Mashonaland Gun Club and narrated their ordeal to a worker at the club.
The worker called the police who arrested Office on the same day.
In passing sentence Mr Tsikwa said although Office was gainfully employed he was as poor as a church mouse which feeds on unleavened bread and bibles because he did not have any savings.
“Aggravating his case is the fact that he has been convicted of three counts of rape after raping two girls aged 17 and 14.
“Rape remains a very serious offence and the most primitive and brutal way of having sexual intercourse with a woman. It is committed by people who do not have respect to a woman’s right to privacy,” he said.
Prosecutor Mr Nathaniel Chigoro had called for a lengthy custodial sentence.