By Bright Zhou
A 54-year-old Gutu man who has left the whole community in shock after allegedly bedding his 17-year-old daughter for three consecutive months appeared before Masvingo Regional Magistrate Bishard Chineka on April 8, 2024 facing rape charges.
Chineka remanded the accused person who could not be named to protect the complainant’s identity in custody for continuation of trial on April 17, 2024.
It is the state’s case as presented by Innocent Mudzingwa that sometime in March 2023, the complainant’s mother went to South Africa leaving the victim in custody of her father and other siblings.
Allegations are that on an unknown date during the month of August 2023 and at around 2300 hours, the accused person went to the complainant’s room where she was asleep and got into the complainant’s blankets while half-naked.
The court heard that the complainant screamed for help to no avail as her father was the only person awake at home with her siblings sleeping in their room. The accused threatened to kill the complainant if she continued screaming or disclosed the matter to anybody.
The accused person then raped the complainant and she did not report the matter to the police heeding her father’s threats.
It is alleged that the accused continued raping his daughter for three months from that time.
The matter came to light when the complainant opened up to some church members in October and told the church leader that her father had been consistently raping her and using her as his wife since August.
The church leader called the complainant’s father and told him to stop what he was doing to his daughter and tried to counsel him of which he denied that he had ever had sexual intercourse with her.
After the church service the accused person took the complainant home and assaulted her with a log for disclosing the matter. The complainant ran away from home and went to her aunt where she explained her ordeal.
The complainant and her aunt reported the matter to the police leading to the arrest of the accused.
