A 25-year-old man from the Jambezi area in Hwange, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the children, who are his nieces,was given an effective 16 years’ in prison after he raped a 12-year-old girl and infected her with HIV before indecently assaulting another nine-year-old child. He pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and aggravated indecent assault when he appeared before Hwange regional magistrate Collet Ncube on Tuesday.
After a full trial, Ncube convicted and sentenced the man to 18 years in jail on the rape charge. Three years were suspended for a period of four years on condition of good behaviour. He was also found guilty of one count of aggravated indecent assault and sentenced to 12 months. This means he will spend 16 years in jail.
The court heard that sometime in January 2016, the convict approached the 12-year-old girl, who was sweeping the yard, and lifted her into her mother’s bedroom where he raped her once. After raping the first victim, he went out and saw the nine-year-old girl sweeping and took her and raped her. Following the rape, the girl started suffering from different ailments, among them rash. The girl was taken by her mother to the clinic where she tested HIV-positive and that is when she told her mother about the rape.
More: NewsDay
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