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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Plumtree Correspondent
A 27-YEAR-OLD Bulilima man will spend the next eight months in prison for sexually abusing his two-year-old niece.

The man from Figtree, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the toddler, rubbed his manhood against his niece’s thighs and ejaculated on her.

He was convicted on his own plea of guilty to indecent assault by Plumtree magistrate, Mr Taurai Manwere. The man was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment and four months were suspended on condition that he does not commit a similar offence within the next five years.

Prosecuting, Mr Zorodzai Pengapenga said the man collected his niece from her home on July 20 and went with her to the fields where he sexually abused her.

“On 20 July around 5PM, the man passed through his brother’s homestead and collected his two-year-old niece. He took her to the grazing fields where he was going to collect his brother’s goats for penning.

“While in the bush, he rubbed his manhood against his niece’s thighs and ejaculated on her. He soiled the toddler’s clothes,” he said.

Mr Pengapenga said the toddler’s mother later became suspicious after realising that her brother-in-law had taken long to return with her daughter. He said the mother followed them to the grazing fields and along the way met him holding the toddler who was crying.

“The mother noticed that her daughter’s pants were wet and inquired with her brother-in-law who told her that she had urinated on her herself. Upon reaching her homestead the woman undressed her daughter intending to wash her and realised that she had semen on her clothes and thighs,” he said.

Mr Pengapenga said the woman sent her daughter to Solusi Clinic for medical examination fearing that her brother-in-law had raped her.

The matter was reported to the police resulting in the man’s arrest.

@DubeMatutu