Elliot Jinjika
CHIVHU – A 32-year-old man from Dziva Village, Chief Nyoka, in Furtherstone, who was caught raping a 15-year-old speech-impaired girl in April 2017, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Knowledge Dziva appeared before magistrate Fadzai Mtombeni who convicted him after full trial.
The State, led by Nicholas Mabvongodze, had convinced the court that on April 14, 2017, Dziva visited the complainant’s homestead and shared some beer with the grandfather’s girl who is going blind and deaf due to old age.
Dziva took advantage of the old man, who was quickly getting drunk, and dragged the girl to the main house where he raped her on the sofa.
As he was abusing the girl, a villager identified as Blessing Makova, who had seen Dziva dragging the girl to the main house, alerted other villagers who came and apprehended the rapist.
The villagers, however, later set him free but only for him to be arrested on May 13 by one Constable Mafaindi who had received a tipoff.
Reasons as to why the villagers did not handover Dziva to the police after apprehending him were not clear but State witnesses revealed that the culprit was caught red-handed molesting the girl.local
