adminThandeka Moyo Court Reporter
A Form One pupil at St Columba’s High school in Bulawayo has been sentenced to receive three strokes of a cane for raping four-year-old girl.
Passing sentence yesterday, regional magistrate Mark Dzira said the girl who testified in camera had helped the State to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
“The accused pleaded not guilty to rape charges. The girl gave her testimony which the court has taken as the true account of what happened. You’re therefore found guilty,” said magistrate Dzira.
He said the pupil will receive three strokes of a rattan cane to be administered by a prison officer.
The boy, who cannot be named for ethical reasons, took the tot and her twin sister from their home claiming that he wanted to play with them.
Prosecuting Tinashe Dzipe said on an unknown date but during the month of March, the boy went to the girls’ home and took them outside.
“They started playing hide and seek and later on the boy told the toddler there was something scary in her panties. He put his hand in the girl’s undergarment and touched her privates,” said Dzipe.
“He pulled out his organ and ordered the girl to bend over. The boy raped the toddler once and asked her not to tell anyone.”
Dzipe said the girls went home and their mother noticed some discharge from the girl’s privates and took her to hospital.
The mother took to the witness stand and told the court that at first the girls did not reveal what had happened.
“After we got the medical report which proved she was raped, I tried asking the twins but they didn’t say anything. One day while they were playing I overheard the other one asking her sister why she didn’t tell me that our neighbour’s son had put his thing into her privates,” she said.
She said the girls told her that the boy had raped one of them.
The Constitutional Court is yet to decide whether or not courts should abolish corporal punishment.
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku recently said abolishing corporal punishment may have a negative impact on children’s behaviour.
His remarks were made during a case in which the Constitutional Court was being asked to confirm a High Court judgement outlawing corporal punishment in a case involving a teenage boy sentenced to caning for rape.
The Chief Justice asked lawyers advocating the abolition of corporal punishment if it was prudent for Zimbabwe to adopt the decisions of other countries to scrap the penalty without assessing its applicability in the local context.
The judgement of the Constitutional Court on the issue is still pending.
Online Reporter