A Mutorashanga couple which forced its 13 year old daughter to live with chickens since September last year was sentenced to two years in jail by Chinhoyi Magistrate Mrs Letwin Rwodzi who found the couple guilty of child abuse.
She ruled that the couple physically and emotionally abused the child on the grounds that she was soiling herself in the blankets. Rwodzi however set aside 6 months on condition that the couple does not commit a similar offence in the next five years. Prosecutor Trustmore Mukarati told the court that the couple denied the child food, shelter and precluded her from going to school.
The court also heard that the child slept and lived in the chicken run where she had one blanket and was not allowed to play with her brothers and sisters born by the stepmother. The couple was arrested after neighbours alerted the police.
More: Herald
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