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NewsDay

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Man gets six months for abusing minor

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A 22-year-old Harare man was on Friday committed to serve an effective six-month jail term for sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl. Desmond Maringosi of Hatfield, Harare, was convicted on February 15 this year by provincial magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini on a charge of sexually molesting a minor. The court then ordered him to pay a $300 […]

A 22-year-old Harare man was on Friday committed to serve an effective six-month jail term for sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl.

Desmond Maringosi of Hatfield, Harare, was convicted on February 15 this year by provincial magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini on a charge of sexually molesting a minor.

The court then ordered him to pay a $300 fine or in default of payment to serve an effective jail term of six months.

However, on two other occasions Maringosi approached the court and made applications for extension of the deadline arguing he was still collecting the money.

Last week, the court confirmed the jail-term after he failed to raise the fine within the prescribed three-month period.

He told the court he had only raised $25. “The court will not condone a situation where an accused person abuses its leniency. You failed to pay the fine, therefore you serve the alternative sentence,” ruled Jarabini.

Circumstances of the case were that sometime in September last year, Maringosi invited the girl from a boarding school in Mashonaland Central Province to his parents’ home in Harare where he subsequently sexually abused her.

The court heard Maringosi continued to abuse the girl on subsequent occasions.

The matter came to light when teachers intercepted a letter directed to her parents where the teenage girl was admitting to flirting with boyfriends and engaging in sexual contact.

When school authorities interrogated her, she then spilled the beans.

The matter was reported to her parents, who took her to Chiyedza Children’s home for counselling.

She then disclosed that Maringosi had sexually abused her, leading to his arrest.