'Sodomised for $1'

A BULAWAYO kombi driver reportedly enticed two primary school boys from his neighbourhood into watching a p-rnographic video on his cellphone before luring them into the bush where he allegedly sodomised them and gave them $1.

Lameck Mabhande, 19, of Queenspark suburb also allegedly bought his young victims' silence with sweets and promised them a free ride in his commuter omnibus when he is said to have attacked the boys between November last year and May this year.

He appeared before Bulawayo regional magistrate Abednico Diliza-Ndebele yesterday facing four counts of aggravated indecent assault. Diliza-Ndebele postponed the matter to September 21 after Mabhande indicated he wanted to engage a lawyer to represent him in the matter. One of the victims aged 13 gave evidence in camera narrating how Mabhande sexually attacked them on three different occasions.

The boy told the court that on the first occasion Mabhande met him and his 11-year-old cousin at a service station in Sauerstown and showed them pornographic material on his cellphone. "We met Mabhande at Skippers Service Station and he was carrying his cellphone. He showed us a pornographic video before he later warned that we could be arrested if found watching it. He then asked us to accompany him to a secluded place where sodomised us before giving us $1," said the victim.

He said the following day Mabhande met them at the same service station and lured them to the same spot where he sexually attacked them before promising them sweets and a free ride to the city centre in his kombi. The victim said on the third occasion, Mabhande spotted him while he was standing at the gate in front of his parents' home shortly after 7PM.

"He called my name and I went to his vehicle which was parked outside and he asked me to accompany him to the city centre. When we arrived in the city centre he parked his kombi near some shops along 3rd Avenue and we disembarked and headed to a sanitary lane near Lobengula Street where he forced me to remove my pair of shorts before he sodomised me," said the boy who looked traumatised.

Mabhande, in his defence, said charges against him were trumped up. He claimed that the one of the boys' mother wanted to fix him following a long-standing dispute over change. "The boy's mother boarded my kombi and she produced R100 and we started arguing over change. She had a bone to pick with me that is why she came up with all these allegations," said Mabhande.

Prosecuting, Concilia Ncube said sometime between November 2014 and May 2015, Mabhande met the two victims at Skippers Service Station along Beach Avenue in Sauerstown. He showed them a pornographic video on his mobile phone.

The court heard that Mabhande lured the two boys to a secluded place in Upper Sauerstown where he sexually assaulted them in turns. He gave them $1 to buy their silence.

On the following day, Mabhande met the victims at the same spot and he again lured them to the bush after promising to give them more money, sweets and a free ride in his kombi.

The boys agreed to join him and he sexually attacked them before ordering them not to report the matter to anyone. The matter came to light on May 29 when one of the victims' sisters overheard the two boys discussing their experiences. She informed her aunt who in turn reported the matter to the police leading to Mabhande's arrest.

The two victims were taken to Mpilo Central Hospital for medical examination. They sustained reflex anal dilatation and multiple tears. According to the medical report the doctor established that there was evidence of penetration on both victims.