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Serial rapist jailed 75 years

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Chegutu serial rapist Paul Tembo (30), who was convicted of six counts of rape and aggravated indecent assault in which four women among them two girls aged 5 years fell prey, has been jailed for 75 years.

Chegutu serial rapist Paul Tembo (30), who was convicted of six counts of rape and aggravated indecent assault in which four women among them two girls aged 5 years fell prey, has been jailed for 75 years.

BY NUNURAI JENA

Tembo, a gold panner, who raped the first victim, a mentally challenged girl in 2007 twice, had five years of his sentence set aside on condition that he does not commit a similar crime within five years after his release.

In passing judgment, Chinhoyi regional magistrate Never Katiyo said the country needs energetic people to carry out farming activities to feed the nation, but “the accused used his bottom energy for the wrong reasons”.

Katiyo said Tembo had decided to turn against his community in a terrorist fashion only synonymous with movie characters. He said Tembo turned a disused house into a “hosue of horror” where he raped three of his victims.

“Such callous behaviour should not be entertained in a civilised world like ours and sometimes you wonder what pleasure is derived from sleeping those little innocent children . . . you did not only deflower, dehumanised and molest them, but you even assaulted the victims,” said Katiyo.

The magistrate also wondered how the accused person was released three times under unclear circumstances by Chegutu police in 2007, 2009 and 2013.

“I’m wondering what evidence did the police want when witnesses and doctors reports were at their disposal,” said Katiyo The court heard that on 19 September 2007 the accused was seen by the complainant’s neighbour walking with the girl towards the dam and alerted her father.

They saw the girl with her dress muddied and with grass at the back of her head, but the accused had already disappeared. A police report was made and the accused was apprehended, but was later released.

Again on the March 19 2013 and September 15 2013 he raped a sex worker and a minor respectively.

His luck ran out on December 26 2014 when he raped another minor, a five-year-old in Chegutu. This prompted the residents to demonstrate against the inaction of the police in cases involving the accused.

In the first two counts involving the mentally challenged girl he was sentenced to 35 years while on the third involving the sex worker he was handed 18 years. He was sentenced to 20 years for the 5th and 6th counts involving the five-year-old girl. The accused got 2 years for aggravated indecent assault.

Katiyo issued a warranty of arrest for the father of the first complainant for refusing.