Rattan cane for sodomite teen

A 14-YEAR-OLD boy from Luveve suburb in Bulawayo was yesterday sentenced to receive four strokes with a rattan cane after he was convicted of sodomising three peers in 2014.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was also sent to a correctional institution where he will stay.

The period which he would be at the correctional facility was not stated in court.

Sentencing the teenager, regional magistrate Mr Chrispen Mberewere said he was shocked that a boy of his age was capable of committing the sickening crimes.

“The court is shocked by the degree of inhumanity that he subjected his three friends to. He deserved six strokes which are the maximum but the court was lenient and he is to receive four strokes,” said Mr Mberewere.

“Again the court orders that he be sent to Kadoma Training Institute, a centre which accommodates and seeks to reform like-minded youngsters.”

The boy’s lawyer, Mrs Patience Moyo from Justice for Children, said the boy lacked parental guidance.

The boy lived with his grandmother while his mother was away in South Africa.

“He is a first offender and has pleaded guilty to the crimes. I would like to submit that his age is characterised by immaturity and therefore we pray that he be a given a non-custodial sentence,” said Mrs Moyo.

The boy sodomised three friends aged nine, 10 and 13 years after an alleged exposure to pornography.

He at one point forced two of the boys to be on guard while he was sodomising the other one in his home.

The boy, who was remorseful, told social workers that he was exposed to pornographic material which gave him ideas to abuse his friends.

Prosecuting, Mr Simbarashe Manyiwa said the boy, a Grade Six Pupil, approached his first victim aged 13 and demanded shoes he had borrowed in 2014.

“When his friend failed to produce them, the boy told him he had to comply with all his demands since he had lost his shoes. He ordered the boy to undress and when he refused, he threatened to assault him and went on to force him into intercourse,” said Mr Manyiwa.

“On another unknown date but during September last year, the same victim knocked off from school and started walking home with the sodomite. He started demanding his shoes again and when the boy failed to produce them, he dragged him to his home where he sodomised him once.”

The court heard that the Grade Six pupil also pounced on a Grade Three pupil.

“On September 8 at around 6PM, the boy was playing with his other friends when the sodomite approached him. He instructed the boy (9) to pull down his trousers and sodomised him,” he said.

“The boy met his last victim in the company of the two victims. He went to him, forced him to undress and sodomised him once. The matter finally came out and on October 9, the three boys were taken for medical examination” — @thamamoe.