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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Gwanda Correspondent

A 48-YEAR-OLD Filabusi man has been jailed for 20 years for raping his 11-year-old niece after claiming to be in love with her.

The man who cannot be named to protect the identity of the minor pleaded not guilty to rape but was convicted due to overwhelming evidence by Gwanda regional magistrate, Mrs Sibonginkosi Mkandla.

He was sentenced to an effective 20-year jail sentence.

Prosecuting, Mr Khumbulani Nyoni said the man raped his niece on November 26 last year after he met her on her way home coming from school with her friends.

“On 26 November 2019 at around 3PM the complainant was on her way from school with her three friends when they met the accused person who is her uncle. He approached the children while holding a whip and accused them of playing around instead of going straight home. The accused person grabbed the complainant’s hand and threatened to assault the other children who then fled leaving them behind,” he said.

“The accused person then told the complainant that he had loved her for a very long time and wanted to have sexual intercourse with her. The complainant refused and the accused person threatened to assault her with the whip he was holding if she didn’t comply.”

Mr Nyoni said the accused person dragged the complainant into a nearby bush and raped her.

After committing the crime, he warned her against reporting the matter.

He said the complainant went home where her mother asked her why she had arrived home late as her friends had already arrived.

She narrated to her mother what had transpired. The matter was reported to the police resulting in the arrest of the accused person.

In his defence, the accused person denied raping the complainant and accused his relatives of fabricating the allegations out of revenge.

“I didn’t commit the offence Your Worship as alleged. I never met the complainant on the day and I didn’t go anywhere near the place they say I committed the offence. The complainant is my niece and therefore I see her as my own daughter as she is my brother’s child and there is no way I could have done such as terrible thing to her,” he said.

“Her family is just fabricating the allegations in order to get back at me for a misunderstanding I had with them.”

@DubeMatutu