A 14-YEAR-OLD Mhondoro girl on Tuesday gave a chilling account of how she was allegedly raped and infected with HIV by a 47-year-old man whom she had been forced to marry by her grandmother four years ago.
CHARLES LAITON
The girl made the disclosures while testifying against her alleged rapist Sebastian Chengera at the Harare Regional Court.
She told the court that when she reported her alleged abuse to her grandmother, the latter advised her to stay with the man as her husband.
“He infected me with a disease and I’m HIV positive . . . we went with my grandmother and told him that he had infected me with a disease, but he denied it. When I left his house, my grandmother said I should live with him since he was the one who interfered with my health,” the girl told regional magistrate Sandra Mupindu.
The incident leading to the teenager’s abuse started at a village in Mhondoro where the girl stayed with her grandmother.
According to the State, during the early hours of July 30 2010, Chengera and the teenager’s grandmother forced the minor onto a Harare-bound bus after indicating to her that she was going to get married to Chengera. It is alleged Chengera and the teenager boarded the same bus and disembarked in Harare whereupon Chengera took the girl to Workington industrial area.
While at an open space, the court heard Chengera told the complainant to sit down and threatened to cut her head off if she spurned his sexual advances.
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He, thereafter, fondled the teenager’s breasts and later raped her once. After the alleged abuse, Chengera took her to his former workplace and left her outside the main gate as he went inside to conduct some business.
“That’s when I met a certain lady who was in the office called Fungai. This woman had found me seated at the gate,” the teenager said. She said she then narrated her ordeal to Fungai who in turn made a police report, leading to Chengera’s arrest.
However, Chengera pleaded not guilty to the rape charge and denied ever abusing the teenager in the manner alleged in court. The trial continues next week on Friday.
