Online Reporter
Herald Reporter
A 68-YEAR-OLD teacher jailed for raping a Grade Seven pupil with special needs shortly after she wrote her final examinations last year has lost his bid to have his conviction and sentence overturned.
Clever Mutero was jailed after being convicted of raping the girl first in the classroom and later in his staffroom.
He was sentenced to 18 years on each count, which are running concurrently.
In his application, the teacher claimed the lower court grossly erred by relying on the evidence of the complainant, which he claimed was grossly unreliable and unbelievable.
He claimed the State witnesses did not corroborate the evidence of the complainant, critically that of a female senior teacher, whom the complainant alleged had told about the alleged two rape incidents.
The Judge, Justice Munamato Mutevedzi, dismissed his appeal, saying it lacked merit in its entirety.
It was alleged firstly that on a date unknown to the prosecution but during the first term of 2024 and in a classroom at the School in Redcliff, the teacher called the complainant, who was playing on the school grounds during lunchtime, and told her to get into the classroom.
While in the classroom, the appellant instructed the complainant to bend forward while holding a desk; he then lifted her uniform dress and removed her underpants.
Following that incident, Mutero left the complainant in the classroom, dressing up properly before she went out.
When the complainant left the classroom, she met a female teacher whom she told about the rape.
The teacher told her that she would advise the headmaster. On the second count, it was in the third term of 2025, and in a staffroom at the primary school.
The teacher called the girl into the staffroom after she had finished writing one of her Grade 7 examination papers.
He instructed the complainant once again to bend while holding the desk; as in the first count, he raised her uniform dress and lowered her underpants.
After the rape, the complainant went outside, where she told her friend, who then accompanied her to the teacher, whom they told about the rape, and in turn she advised them that she was going to advise the headmaster.
The girl later developed vaginal thrush and was questioned by her maternal aunt, who had initially been reported as her mother.
It was when she revealed the violations.
