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Thandeka Moyo Court Reporter
A Makokoba gold panner was yesterday sentenced to 14 years in prison after he detained and turned a mentally challenged girl into a sex slave for five months.

Calex Mafika detained the 16-year-old Inyathi girl from November last year until his arrest this year. He becomes the third man to be convicted of raping the same girl.

Mafika attempted to buy his freedom by arguing that he was in love with the girl and that he took her into his house intending to start lobola negotiations with her family.

He claimed they were now expecting a child together as the girl was pregnant.

Senior regional magistrate Mark Dzira rebuked Mafika for taking advantage of the girl saying he deserved to be kept in prison to deter him from mischief.

“When you first slept with the girl she openly told you that other men had been previously arrested for having sex with her and that statement didn’t mean anything to you. This girl just failed to show the court her right hand and there is no way you could have lived with her without noticing she is mentally challenged,” said magistrate Dzira.

He said cases of sexual abuse involving mentally challenged women were on the increase in the country and that it was the courts’ role to protect such women from criminals like Mafika.

“One wonders why men go for mentally challenged women when there are plenty others who are in a position to consent to sex. You’re therefore sentenced to 14 years in prison of which four years are suspended on condition of good behaviour.”

In his defence, Mafika argued that it was not a crime to be in love with any woman of his choice.

“When I took her in, it was never my intention to abuse her. I was planning to pay lobola for her as I love her so much,” he said.

Mafika told the court that he did not know that the girl was mentally challenged as she showed no symptoms of mental illness during their period together.

The State, however, argued that Mafika had detained the girl for four days only, from November 16 to 20 November.

Prosecuting Tinashe Dzipe told the court that sometime in November last year, Mafika met the girl who was walking alone at a business centre in Inyathi. Dzipe said Mafika offered the girl one rand before taking her to his place in Makokoba.

He took her to his room in Makokoba and detained her for four days during which he had sexual intercourse with her many times without her consent.

He allowed the girl to leave but later hooked up with her again and they started cohabiting. Mafika ran out of luck when a peer educator in Makokoba discovered the crime and made a report to the police.