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Russell Dzete

Codelia Mondela, Court Reporter
A 65-YEAR -old man facing a charge of indecent assault alleged in court yesterday that deregistered Bulawayo lawyer Russell Dzete defrauded him of $1 400.

The man from Inyathi alleged he had been defrauded by Dzete, former employee of Marondedze, Mukuku Partners and Legal Practitioners on a pretext of representing him after he was arrested for abusing his 11year-old niece.

The Law Society of Zimbabwe has placed the firm under curatorship following a string of fraud allegations against Dzete.

The man had been issued with a warrant of arrest after he did not come to court as ordered on June 20, this year.

He said: “I had found a legal representative who advised me that we would come to court together. However, when I went to look for him in his office, I was told he had relocated to Harare.”

Bulawayo magistrate Mr Crispen Mberewere did not ask the man to plead.

He remanded him in custody to September 8 saying he could be robbed once more by other Dzetes.

Prosecuting, Mr Simbarashe Manyiwa said the man indecently assaulted his juvenile niece between 2015 and December 2016.

He said the charge would need to be amended to rape as there was penetration.

“Sometime in 2015, the man took advantage of the family’s absence and called the minor into his bedroom where he rubbed his penis between the complainant’s thighs,” he said.

Mr Manyiwa said the man threatened to assault her if she disclosed the matter to anyone.

“Since then the man took advantage of every opportunity when the family was not around and rubbed his penis between the minor’s thighs while threatening her to keep the matter to herself,” he said.

The court heard that the matter came to light when the minor’s aunt noticed that she was limping. She questioned her and she narrated everything.

A report was made at Inyathi Police Post leading to his arrest.

@MondelaC