A man from Gwanda has been sentenced to 18 years in jail for raping his niece aged 14.
The 36-year-old convict, who cannot be named for ethical reasons, had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
He was, however, convicted on the basis of overwhelming evidence when he appeared before Gwanda regional magistrate Sithembiso Ndebele.
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 January 13, the complainant was playing with her friends while her grandmother was not around.
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The convict instructed 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.
Prosecutor Zanele Sithole said in February, the convictraped the complainant on two other occasions during her grandmother’s absence.
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,” Sithole said.
In passing the sentence, the magistrate said she had taken into account the significant age difference between the complainant and the convict.
Ndebele said the convict ought to have assumed a protective role over the complainant but instead chose to harm her.
“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 convict 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 to spite him.