Uncle gets 13 years jail term for raping niece and claiming that she is HIV positive

A man from Jotsholo who took advantage of his wife's absence to sneak into his niece's blankets and rape her has been slapped with an effective 13 years in jail.

The man who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child was denying the charge when he appeared before Hwange regional magistrate Dambudzo Malunga.

Denying the charge the man said he could not have raped the girl as he raised her like his own child, and  besides had he done it he would have died long back as the girl is HIV positive.

"I have raised her since she was a child, she is like my own daughter, besides, she is HIV positive, so had i raped her i would have been dead by now, look at her , she is already dead," he said.

The magistrate was irked by this response  and  some other insults the man had hurled at the girl and  she gave him a verbal chastising.

"We are not here to discuss about complainant's HIV status, we are here to talk about rape. It's probably not her fault she is positive but atleast one or both parents might be at fault," Malunga said.

The complainant  at one time broke down when accused was insulting her about the HIV. Ironically, the accused's wife  admitted that she too was HIV positive. The man is also a member of the neighbourhood committee.

The magistrate slapped him with 15 years in jail before suspending 2 years  for five years on condition of good behavior.

In passing of sentence, the magistrate said, "in the African culture, you raped your own daughter , a whole neighbourhood watch committee member, you are as good as a police officer."

The court heard that sometime in 2014 the accused was left by his wife with the 16 year old girl and he took advantage of that to sneak into her blankets and raped her. The rape had to re occur up October 2016 when the girl decided to spill the bins and this led to a report being made to the [police leading to his arrest.