NUST student arrested for raping a minor

A second-year NUST student has been arrested for allegedly raping a juvenile girl on several occasions and giving her money to buy her silence.

The student stays with his grandmother in Waterford. The  complainant's age was not given but she was doing Form Three at a local school.

She stayed with her sister, a tenant at the accused's grandmother's house.

The Sports Management student would allegedly rape the girl and promise her money, but because he did not have it, he would send her to borrow from his grandmother claiming that her sister sent her.

The matter only came to light when his grandmother told other tenants that the girl's sister owed her money.

When the juvenile's sister heard about it, she confronted the landlady to inquire, upon which the girl revealed it was the accused who sent her to borrow the money and told her to lie that her sister sent  her.

The accused was on Friday arraigned before Bulawayo magistrate Ms Sibongile Msipa facing three counts of rape.

He was not asked to plead and was remanded out of custody to 1 February on $100 bail.

He was instructed to reside at his given address, to surrender travelling documents and not to interfere with witnesses as his bail conditions.

The prosecutor, Mr Malvern Nzombe, told the court that sometime in October last year, the girl's sister fell ill and was admitted to hospital.

The girl remained at the house with the sister's husband.

At some point, the juvenile reportedly asked the accused to assist her do her homework during the day.

The accused later asked her to come to his room at night, to which the girl declined saying her sister's husband would not allow her.

The court heard that at about 4pm on one of the days, the accused  allegedly entered the bathroom while the girl was bathing and told her  he did not know there was someone bathing. He gave her a two-dollar note and left.

At about 8pm, the accused allegedly knocked at the girl's bedroom door and asked to be allowed in.

After entering, the court heard, he allegedly closed the girl's mouth with his hand telling her to keep quiet.

He allegedly dragged her to his bedroom where he raped her once.

The girl reportedly did not tell anyone about the issue.

The court was told that two days later, the accused knocked again  at the girl's bedroom door and claimed he was her sisters' husband. When she opened the door, she found that it was actually him and he allegedly dragged her to his bedroom where he raped her once.

He allegedly sent her to borrow money from his grandmother as payment for her "services" and she was given three dollars, which he promised he would pay back.

A week later when the girl's sister was discharged from hospital the accused allegedly raped the girl early in the morning after seeing her fetching water from a tap outside the house.

He allegedly told her to come and get some money for transport to school and  raped her on the sofa.

On 8 December, his grandmother told other tenants that the girl's sister owed her money which was borrowed by the girl who said she had been sent by her or by her husband.

The girl confessed that it was the accused who was sending her to borrow the money which he would then give her to buy her silence after raping her.

A report was made to the police leading to the accused's arrest.