Siphakeme .Mnindwa
Patrick Chitumba, patrick.chitumba@chronicle.co.zw
A 48-year-old Gweru City Council security guard has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for raping and impregnating his landlord’s 26-year-old mentally challenged daughter.
Appearing before Gweru Regional Magistrate Mr Christopher Maturure, the man , who is employed as a pump station guard by the local authority, faced one count of rape.
The man pleaded not guilty to the charge but was convicted after a full trial.
Mr Maturure sentenced the man to an effective 15 years in prison.
In his sentencing remarks, the magistrate emphasised the importance of protecting vulnerable individuals from abuse and ensuring justice is served.
“The accused is convicted of a serious offence of raping a mentally challenged woman who is his landlord’s daughter. The accused should have been the one protecting her, but he turned out to be her abuser and is therefore sentenced to 15 years in prison to deter would-be offenders,” said Mr Maturure.
In his defence, the man claimed he was having consensual sexual intercourse with the woman (name withheld to protect her identity) and that he was unaware of her mental condition.
“We were having consensual sexual intercourse, and I didn’t know that she was mentally challenged,”he said.
The State’s case was that in June, the man was renting a room at a house in Athlone suburb, Gweru, where the complainant’s mother was his landlord. At the same time, the man was paying the woman to look after his two-year-old child.
The court heard that he raped her twice in his bedroom and threatened to kill her if she disclosed the matter to anyone.
The matter came to light in October when the woman’s mother noticed that her daughter was pregnant. The woman’s mother confronted her, and that is when she revealed that the man had raped her without using protection.
A police report was filed, leading to the man’s arrest. Mr Talent Tadenyika prosecuted.
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