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Melody Baya, Court Reporter
A 63-year-old HIV-positive man from Emakhandeni suburb in Bulawayo who is facing charges of raping his granddaughter has claimed that he had consensual sex with the teenager after she seduced him.

The man was captured on camera by the 16-year-old while naked and asking for sex, a day after they had been formally introduced.

The teen lives with her mother in South Africa and had visited her paternal grandparents from her aunt’s house in Northend suburb when the sickening sex attack took place on September 28.

Yesterday, the man who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and indecent assault when his trial opened before regional magistrate Mark Dzira.

“She was the one who lured me to her as she always walked around parading herself naked. We had sexual intercourse by mutual agreement and I even paid her R150 for that,” he said.

The man, who was representing himself, suggested that the teenager had it coming. “She does not dress properly and neither does she come home on time. I think she has a hidden agenda she wants to pursue,” he said.

‘I used protection with her. Before sleeping with her, I went and fetched a condom in my bedroom.”

The teenager, who dropped out of school in Form One due to financial challenges, was visiting her grandparents for the first time when her grandfather allegedly forced himself on her.

Testifying yesterday, she said she had recorded a video of her grandfather naked and begging for sex.

“It was on September 28 when it all started. My grandfather woke me up and asked me to clean the fowl run. When I finished, I then proceeded to clean the dining room where my grandfather followed me and started fondling my shoulders and I panicked. I immediately jumped and told him I did not like what he was doing. He kept on touching me and asking me to have sexual intercourse with him,” she said.

Prosecuting, Tinashe Dzipe told the court that when the rape suspect’s wife left the house and went into town, the man pounced on his granddaughter. “Taking advantage of the absence of his wife, he locked the main door of the house and started making sexual advances to the complainant,” said Dzipe.

“After finishing taking a bath, the complainant went to her room and closed the door behind her. Whilst applying some lotion on her body, he stormed into the bedroom, removed his trousers and pushed the complainant onto the bed. He then went on to have sexual intercourse with her without her consent.”

The trial continues tomorrow.