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Amanda Chikari, Midlands Reporter
A 38–year-old Mberengwa man has been slapped with a three-year imprisonment sentence for applying  herbs on his 19-year-old daughter’s breasts and private parts in a ritual to get rich.

The man’s daughter, who was abused when she was 17 years old in 2015, started having problems when she got married as she would see a vision of her father sleeping with her whenever she became intimate with her husband.

The man, from Hlatini Village in Mberengwa whose identity has been withdrawn to protect the identity of his victim, appeared before Mberengwa resident magistrate Mrs Evia Matura facing one count of indecent assault.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 36 months imprisonment.

In passing the sentence, Mrs Matura said the man had violated his daughter in a manner that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

“You exchanged your cultural values for the love of money. This manifests moral decadence at its heights. You have caused your daughter to suffer hallucinations and it has affected her marital life.

“She sees your cruelty in every man and you didn’t show any remorse or contrition. You are sentenced to three years in prison,” she said.

Prosecuting, Ms Wadzanayi Shayanewako told the court that on November 29 in 2015, the accused ordered his daughter to come to the garden where he was.

“The accused called the complainant into the garden which is situated at their homestead and persuaded the complainant to obey to whatever he wanted her to do saying that she was his beloved daughter. The accused’s wife was not at the homestead and was to sleep out on the same day,” said Ms Shayanewako.

The court heard that on the same date at around 10PM the man, while half naked, went into his daughter’s bedroom hut and lured her to his bedroom hut.

Ms Shayanewako said he then made her daughter sit on his bed before pulling her blouse exposing her breasts.

He also pulled up her skirt.

“The accused took some herbs and applied them all over the complainants’ body including her breasts and private parts with his hands. He ordered the complainant to lie on the bed but she refused,” said Ms Shayanewako.

She said the matter came to light in November last year when the complainant revealed the incident to her husband after having some hallucinations.

— @Amanda49