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Marvelous Moyo Gwanda Correspondent
A NEW YEAR celebration that was supposed to end in joy has landed a Beitbridge taxi driver in trouble after he was arrested for having sexual intercourse with his minor cousin.

Nobert Chauke, 27, of Lutumba area, a married taxi driver plying the Beitbridge-Lutumba route, admitted to having sexual intercourse with his 15-year-old cousin, but claimed that they were in love.

He was convicted on his own plea of guilty to having sexual intercourse with a young person under the age of 16 years when he appeared before Gwanda regional magistrate Joseph Mabeza.

The taxi driver was remanded out of custody and would be sentenced on May 8.

Chauke was initially charged with rape but the charge was altered following evidence produced in court of some WhatsApp messages indicating that the two had a consensual sexual relationship.

The taxi driver’s lawyers, Matshobana Ncube and Kucaca Phulu said their client was a simple and young unsophisticated person who indicated that he was not aware that he was committing an offence since he thought the girl was 16 years old.

The lawyers said their client was of the view that the girl was mature enough because of “her physical stature as she also had hips and looked like a fully-fledged woman.”

The lawyers also said the offence was committed when the girl was 15-years, a month and some days old, thus she was nearly 16-years-old.

They suggested that the court should hand Chauke a suspended sentence as he was willing to perform 420 hours of community service so that he could also continue providing for his family outside business hours since he was the breadwinner.

His wife was said to be pregnant and they had a child.

However, in his submissions regional prosecutor Johannes Tlou said Chauke had breached the trust placed on him by the girl and deserved an effective, short prison sentence.

He added that would deter him and the community from exploiting young children.

Tlou said community service would trivialise the offence as the 12 year age difference between the girl and the taxi driver was aggravatory.

He disputed that Chauke was a simple and unsophisticated man saying taxi drivers were known to be well informed people.