Trymore Tagwirei

MIRROR REPORTER

MASVINGO-Regional Magistrate Bishard Chineka yesterday sentenced a 15-year-old Bikita boy to four years in jail for raping his five year-old niece.

The sentence was wholly suspended on condition that the boy does not commit a similar offense in the next five years.

The boy denied the charge and insisted that his niece suffered bruises on her private part after she was pricked by a stick while they were playing in the garden at their homestead.

Magistrate Chineka considered that the boy is a first offender, a form three student and is only 15-years old.

The boy (name withheld) from Mudzingwa Village, Chief Mazungunye in Bikita raped his niece on May 22, 2022 at around 4:30 pm. The accused person is uncle to the rape victim.

Prosecutor Liberty Hove told the Court that the niece is doing Early Childhood Development (ECD) at a local Bikita school.

Hove said that the boy and his niece were left at home alone by their grandmother who was travelling to a nearby village.

The boy called his niece into a kitchen hut and ordered her to lie down on the floor facing upwards. The girl complied and the accused raped her.

The complainant cried for help but the accused threatened to cut her throat with a knife if she told anyone. The girl narrated the ordeal to her grandmother when she returned.

A Police report was filed leading to the arrest of the boy.