Prostitute fabricates rape charges

TWO friends who spent four months in remand prison facing allegations of attempted rape, were on Monday set free after it emerged that the alleged victim had fabricated the allegations.

Samson Magiya (25) and Cosmas Dube (21) were accused of attempting to rape Lorraine Banda (30) on the night of November 7 last year near Mbizo 4 shopping centre.

Banda had alleged that the two were armed with a machete when they met her in a bushy path while on her way home and ordered her to stop. She alleged that Magiya then tripped her to the ground and forced her to lie face down while Dube stood guard and ordered her to remove her clothes.

Banda told the court that she only escaped being raped by kicking Magiya and that her screaming had forced the two to flee.

However, under cross examination, Banda later told the court that she was a prostitute plying her trade around the shopping centre and on the night in question she had been paid $3 by Magiya for sex.

The two had left the shopping centre into a bushy area to complete the transaction when Banda saw that Magiya was carrying a machete, she then grabbed it and ran away. Banda, who was immediately arrested as she left the wittiness stand, said she had lied to the police.