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Mashudu Netsianda Senior Court Reporter
THE 18-year-old Plumtree man who allegedly raped his sister, 15, after claiming that she seduced him when she saw him naked and passed a positive comment about his manhood, will know his fate today. Bulawayo regional magistrate Mark Dzira remanded the man to today for judgment when he appeared before him facing a rape charge. He pleaded guilty to the charge, but Dzira altered the plea to not guilty after the man raised the issue of having been seduced in his defence.

In his defence, the alleged rapist said: “I had just come from the bathroom and was applying body lotion when my sister walked into my room while I was naked. She stood by the door and passed a good comment about my manhood, saying she admired it. I got tempted and we ended up having consensual sex. I did not rape her at all.”

The siblings’ grandmother also testified in court.
“I just saw my granddaughter entering the yard in the company of another girl from the same village and her blouse was torn. When I asked her why her blouse was torn she revealed to me that she had been raped by her brother in the field. We then went to the scene but there was nothing to indicate there was some sort of wrestling,” the woman told the court.

Prosecuting, Tinashe Dzipe said on August 9, the man took advantage of their parents’ absence from home and invited his sister into his bedroom and asked her to sleep with him but she refused.

The man allegedly wrestled with his sister and when she tried to leave his bedroom, he pushed her onto his bed, ripped off her panties and tore a piece of her blouse, which he shoved in her mouth to prevent her from screaming. He then raped her once.

The girl went to her cousin’s homestead in the same village and narrated her ordeal. They then went back to the victim’s home and informed the grandmother.
A report was made to the police leading to the man’s arrest.

Dzipe said if it is proved that the man was seduced, the charge is likely to be altered to that of incest and having sexual intercourse with a minor instead of rape.