Memory Rasa
MPANDAWANA – A 16-year-old boy doing Form Three at Mushaviri Secondary School is in custody accused of raping a pupil at Paramount Academy who is a stream behind during the August school holidays in Mushaviri village under Chief Gutu.
Magistrate Edwin Marecha remanded the juvenile in custody to October 13, 2016 when his case will be moved to the provincial court in Masvingo.
He is being charged for rape as defined in Section 65(1) of the Criminal Law and Codification Reform Act Chapter 9:23.
He admitted having sex with the 16-year-old girl when he appeared in court but said it was consensual, claiming the girl was his girlfriend.
“We had sex in the bushes one Friday evening around 17:00hrs and I just assumed it was alright to do so. The girl and I were in love, we started knowing each other long back since primary school and she would come to the farm every school holiday. I did not know that it was rape. She tried to push me away at first but I could sense she was enjoying it as well. Is it wrong to sleep with your lover?” said the teenager.
It is the State’s case that on September 02, 2016, the accused and his girlfriend were walking together through the bushes before he pushed the girl to the ground and had sexual intercourse with her without her consent.
It is alleged that after the incident, the girl left the scene crying and told her grandmother who immediately reported the case to Gutu police and the girl was taken to Gutu Mission Hospital for medical examination.
Agatha Gabriel prosecuted.news
