A Harare man, who was slapped with a 20-year jail term for allegedly raping a prominent sungura musician’s daughter, yesterday breathed a sigh of relief after the High Court quashed his conviction.
BY CHARLES LAITON
Nathan Stotombe (26) was, however, found guilty of indecent assault and sentenced to a 12-month jail term instead.
Stotombe will, however, rue the day he sexually molested the 19-year-old girl by kissing her while unconscious, although he found solace in the fact that he will no longer serve the 17 years’ effective jail term he had been slapped with by Harare regional magistrate Fadzai Mtombeni.
He was yesterday sentenced to an effective nine months’ imprisonment by High Court judges of appeal Justices Felistas Chatukuta and David Mangota.
After being convicted for allegedly raping the girl, Stotombe filed an appeal at the High Court challenging both conviction and sentence, arguing he had not sexually abused the said girl.
His assertions were confirmed by the doctor’s report which ruled out that the girl had been sexually abused while she was unconscious as alleged by the State.
Faced with the facts that there was no evidence of penetration, the judges found Stotombe guilty of indecent assault after State prosecutor Fortunate Kachidza produced photographs showing Stotombe smooching the musician’s unconscious daughter.
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The court heard that the incident occurred sometime in July last year when the girl, who wanted to be tattooed, met Stotombe in Harare’s central business district.
Stotombe had initially been accused of intoxicating the girl before raping her and shooting photos of her nude body while she lay unconscious and circulating them on social media.
The court further heard on the day in question Stotombe told the teenager that the tattooing process was to be done at his friend’s residence where upon arrival she was led to a back room where Stotombe and his friends started drawing the tattoos. However, when the girl complained of pain, she was given some beer under the pretext that it would lessen the pain but when she drank she passed out.
The court heard Stotombe took the opportunity to sexually molest her leading to his arrest alongside his friend who was later acquitted of the rape charges that had also been preferred against him.
