Beverly Bizeki
A 42 year-old Bikita man was slapped with an effective 32 year jail term for raping his nine year old step daughter on a number of occasions in October 2022.
Initially he was sentenced to 36 years before four were suspended on condition of good behavior.
Masvingo Magistrate Bishard Chineka said in his judgement, he could have given the accused a longer jail term if the State had provided HIV results for both the accused and the victim.
Chineka further said the accused deserved the lengthy jail term, as the matter will leave the minor traumatized as she was now more of a ‘sex slave’ to the accused as he used every chance he got to rape her.
It is the State case as presented by prosecutor Eunice Shoko that the accused raped his step daughter sometime in October last year when she visited his homestead to call her biological mother at her grandmother’s request.
The convict denied the victim’s mother from accompanying her back home as he opted to do so himself.
The accused however changed route on his way to his in-laws and went to a nearby mountain within the village where he raped the minor and threatened to stab her with a knife if she disclosed anything about the incident.
On the second occasion, on December 15, 2022 during the day, the accused together with the victim and her two sisters were sitting under a Mupfura tree when he sent his wife to fetch water at the borehole.
After she left, the convict sent the victim to the kitchen to fetch water before following and raping her.
The victim’s younger sister (5) followed to the kitchen hut carrying the other sister (1 year 4 months) and found their father in the act before reporting the matter to the victim’s mother.
Again he threatened to stab the young girl with a knife if she disclosed the matter.
The victim’s mother suddenly arrived and found her daughter telling her step father of her intention to report the matter and found the accused zipping his trousers.
An altercation ensued with the mother shouting at her husband for the evildoing before the latter asked for forgiveness and kept on following his wife to deter her from reporting the matter.
On the third occasion, the accused person took advantage of the absence of his wife and raped the minor once in the kitchen hut.
While in the evil act, the wife called her daughter which alerted the rapist and he instructed the girl to go, meet her mother outside the hut and tell her that he was not around as he had gone to take a bath.
The victim did not report the incident to her mother as she had been threatened with a knife again.
The girl’s mother however managed to sneak from the accused person’s homestead together with her children on December 25, 2022 and went to her uncle’s place whom she informed of the matter.
The uncle then accompanied the girl’s mother to make a police report and the victim was referred to Silveira Mission Hospital for medical examination.
Chineka also said the case would traumatize the victim’s mother as well.
