admin
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
THE trial of a Victoria Falls man who allegedly raped his wife’s two minor daughters from her previous marriage and infected them with HIV failed to start last week.
A court was forced to defer the trial to June 8 as the mother of the children, who is a key witness in the case, failed to appear in court.
The two minors aged eight and six sustained injuries after the 34-year-old man from Chinotimba suburb allegedly also had anal sex with them.
He faces two counts of rape.
Both the mother and father cannot be named to protect the identity of the minors.
The woman was lucky to escape with no warrant of arrest as the court could not establish if police had served her with summons to attend court on Friday.
“We will have to re-serve the witness with summons to come to court,” said prosecutor Mr Bheki Tshabalala.
Hwange regional magistrate Mr Collette Ncube postponed start of trial to June 8.
The man allegedly abused the two girls when they visited their mother in December last year.
The mother lives in Victoria Falls with the alleged rapist while her children live with their maternal grandmother in Ndlovu area on the outskirts of the resort town.
According to court documents, both the accused who is a fuel dealer and the girls’ mother allegedly tried to conceal the offence by forcing the minors to implicate a neighbour who was arrested and detained in January.
The neighbour was only released after residents tipped off police that he was being framed.
“In December, the accused took advantage of the absence of his wife and had sexual intercourse with the two juveniles aged eight and six. The matter came to light when the two girls had difficulty walking and were complaining of having pain on their privates,” reads State papers in part.
Investigators were told that the accused used a cloth to gag the two girls each time he raped them.
The suspected rapist stepdad also allegedly threatened the two victims with unspecified action if they dared to report the sexual assault to anyone.
After noticing that the girls had been sexually abused, the court heard, their mother allegedly sent them back to their grandmother to conceal the abuse.
Their aunt and grandmother examined the two after noticing that they had difficulties in walking.
The girls were referred to Victoria Falls District Hospital where it was established that they had been raped and infected with HIV.
@ncubeleon
Online Reporter