Latest News Editor's Choice


News / Regional

Rapist refuses to leave courtroom

by Fairness Moyana
04 Oct 2014 at 10:06hrs | Views
PRISON wardens had to call for reinforcements at the Hwange Magistrate's Court yesterday when a 66-year-old Binga man resisted leaving the dock shouting that he was innocent after being slapped with a 10-year jail term for rape.

The man (who cannot be identified to protect the victim) from Njobola village was convicted of raping his granddaughter in 2011 when she was 14 years old. He gave her $1 to buy her silence.

The man had to be manhandled as he refused to leave the courtroom after regional magistrate Dambudzo Malunga delivered the judgment.

"Your honour, this is a mistake I didn't commit the offence, I'm being set up. I cannot be sent to jail for something I didn't do. I'm innocent," shouted the man as he struggled with prison guards to remain inside the dock. He claimed that his granddaughter framed him after he discovered that she had stolen his $20 note.

"Your honour, I'm being framed. Complainant is lying because she stole my money which was $20 so as a cover up she went and reported that I raped her which is not true," he said.

However, the magistrate would have none of it and described him as a cruel man who was supposed to safeguard his granddaughter from sex predators.

"You committed a very serious offence and took advantage of complainant's tender age to abuse her. You were very cruel when as a grandfather you were supposed to be protecting her from other sexual abusers but instead you turned into one," said Malunga.

Two years were suspended from the man's 10-year sentence on condition of good behaviour.

Prosecuting, Tawanda Sigauke told the court that in August 2011, the old man sneaked into the girl's bedroom at night when she was sleeping with her two young sisters.

He pulled away the blanket and removed her skirt before raping her. He repeated the abuse during the same month and gave the girl $1.

His victim narrated her ordeal to a relative who made a report to police leading to his arrest.

Source - chronicle