A 41-year-old rapist father from Zaka who infected his eight-year-old daughter with a sexually transmitted disease twice will spend 40 years behind bars, a Masvingo magistrate has ruled.
The father (name supplied), who was facing nine counts of rape, had been initially sentenced to 50 years by magistrate Esther Muremba who, however, suspended 10 of them on condition of good behaviour.
This means that without parole, the man, from Makwanda Village under Chief Bota, who ravaged his daughter over a seven-year period, will leave jail aged 81.
Appearing for the State, Batanai Mathose told the court the man, a widower, raped his daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, between 2004 and 2011.
Between September and December 2004 he creeped into her blankets in their single hut which they shared as a bedroom with his two daughters.
He threatened the girl with death if she told anyone, but as the assaults continued, she could not hold it anymore and told her great-grandmother (name supplied), who made a report to the police, leading to the man’s arrest.
The court heard while the man was out on bail before his trial commenced, he allegedly took away his daughter from her grandmother where she was placed under custody.
On January 1 2011, the unrepentant rapist again ravaged the daughter at his homestead. The girl, who was now 15 years old, was also raped daily from April 28-30, as well as from May 1-9 last year.
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The offence came to light when the girl refused to go back home and sought help from Jephias Pilati, a caregiver with a local non-governmental organisation, FACT.
Pilati then took the girl to the police station and a report was made, leading to the man’s arrest on fresh rape charges.
In passing sentence, Muremba labelled the man “a beast unfit to be a father”, and said he should languish in prison to deter would-be offenders.
“He behaved like an animal by raping his daughter and, therefore, does not deserve to be a father. He also infected the girl with an STI and re-infected her while he was out of police custody. For that, he has to face a lengthy jail term,” said Muremba.
