A 36-year-old man from Gwanda has been sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment for raping his 14-year-old niece.
The accused, who cannot be named for ethical reasons, pleaded not guilty to the charge but was convicted on the basis of overwhelming evidence by Gwanda regional magistrate Sithembiso Ndebele.
He was sentenced to an effective 18-year jail term.
The court was told that the accused raped the complainant on several occasions while she was staying at her grandmother’s homestead, where the accused also resided.
In January the complainant went to stay with her grandmother who is the accused person’s mother.
On 13 January the complainant was playing with her friends while her grandmother was not around.
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The accused instructed the other children to go and play elsewhere and remained alone with the complainant.
He took the complainant into a bedroom hut where he raped her and warned her against revealing the matter.
The accused person told the complainant to go outside and play with her friends.
Prosecutor Zanele Sithole said during the month of February, the accused raped the complainant on two further occasions during the grandmother’s absence.
She said the matter came to light when the complainant disclosed the abuse to her aunt.
"The case was subsequently reported to the police, leading to the arrest of the accused," said Sithole.
In passing sentence, the magistrate said she had taken into account the significant age difference between the complainant and the accused, which stood at 22 years.
She said the complainant vulnerable, adding that the trauma arising from the accused’s actions could affect her for the rest of her life.
Ndebele said the accused ought to have assumed a protective role over the complainant but instead chose to harm her. The accused person is an uncle to the complainant, which means he was supposed to protect her but went on to harm her.
There is also a huge age difference of 22 years between the complainant and accused person.
"The complainant’s grandmother indicated that the incident has left the complainant traumatised and this experience may leave her scared for the rest of her life,” she said.
In mitigation, the accused denied raping the complainant, stating that he would not do anything to harm her and that he regarded her as his own daughter.
He claimed that the complainant’s aunt had fabricated the allegations in order to spite him.