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Codelia Mondela, Court Reporter
A MAN from Plumtree has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for raping his neighbour’s 10-year-old daughter while she was sleeping.

The man (21) forced open the minor’s bedroom door and sneaked into her blankets where he raped her once without using protection.

The man pleaded guilty to rape charges before Bulawayo Regional Magistrate Mr Crispen Mberewere.  He said he was drunk when he committed the offence.

Mr Mberewere sentenced him to 12 years in prison and suspended four years on condition that he does not commit a similar crime in the next five years.

He will spend an effective eight years in prison. For the State, Mr Simbarashe Manyiwa said the man raped the juvenile on April 10 this year at her father’s homestead.

“He forced open the complainant’s bedroom door, sneaked into her blankets and raped her. After the rape, he left the room and went to his place of residence,” the prosecutor said.

The minor narrated the rape to her grandmother who reported the matter to the police.

In a separate incident, a 22-year-old man from Fort Rixon allegedly raped his juvenile niece while she was sleeping.

The man allegedly went to the 11-year-old’s bedroom when she was alone. The minor woke up after feeling pain and saw her uncle raping her. She asked what he was doing but he kept quiet and left the room.

The man pleaded not guilty to rape before Bulawayo regional magistrate Mrs Sithembiso Msipha-Marondedze who remanded him in custody to April 30 for trial. — @MondelaC