Man jailed for marrying a minor

A Filabusi man who married a 14-year-old girl and later seriously assaulted her after suspecting that she had an extramarital affair, was last week slapped with an effective eight-month jail term for having sex with a minor.

Mike Nyoni (21) pleaded not guilty to a charge of having sex with a minor when he appeared before Filabusi magistrate Mzingaye Moyo.

The prosecutor Smart Tafireyi told the court that sometime in December last year Nyoni proposed love to the girl who accepted.

From that time they met several times. They later got married for four days.

It is the State case that the two divorced after Nyoni accused the girl of having an extramarital affair with a local man.

He had seriously assaulted her and she reported the matter to the police, leading to Nyoni's arrest.

Following his arrest, it was then discovered that he had been married to a minor below the age of consent.

In his defence in court, Nyoni said he did not know the age of the girl and believed that she was mature due to her big body.

He also stunned the court when he said when he had sex with the girl he did not enjoy it because he had a sexually transmitted infection.

The magistrate convicted and sentenced him to eight months in jail.