Run away girl’s lover gets heavier sentence

A BULAWAYO man who asked a magistrate for a lighter sentence after being ordered to perform community service ended up getting a heavier one — 12 months in jail.

Charles Ncube (23) had been convicted of engaging in sexual intercourse with a minor after he cohabited with a girl (15) who ran away from home after being chided by her mother for having a boyfriend at an early age.

Western Commonage Magistrate Mr Stephen Ndhlovu had, on Monday, ordered Ncube to perform community service for the crime, but the convict asked the magistrate: “Isn’t there a better sentence that you can give me other than community service?”

Mr Ndhlovu responded by sending him away for 12 months, suspending four months for good behaviour over the next three years.

The 15-year-old girl’s family reported her missing after she had run away from home on May 27 when her mother confronted her for having a boyfriend.

The Chronicle subsequently published a missing person appeal from the police in connection with her case.

Within days, she went to the police and asked them to escort her home and Ncube, whom she was cohabiting with, was arrested.

Prosecuting, Mr Keneth Shava said on May 27, the teen ran away from home and went to stay with her boyfriend for two days.

“The accused told the complainant that it wasn’t safe for her to be at his house so she went to stay with a friend at Old Lobengula. On July 14, the complainant went to Western Commonage police station where she asked the police to escort her home claiming that she was no longer interested in staying with the accused,” said Mr Shava.

The minor said she had sex with two men, Ncube included, after running away from home. “I would spend the day with my boyfriend in Lobengula then the other one would come and take me for the night. The one in Lobengula didn’t know that I had another boyfriend in Entumbane. I was having sexual intercourse with both of them,” she said.

The minor’s mother who testified in court said she confronted Ncube after her neighbours had told her that they had seen her daughter coming out of his house.

“He admitted that he had slept with my daughter. I asked him to go and buy a pregnancy test kit to confirm if he hadn’t impregnated her. He never came back with it and that was the same day that my daughter eloped from home,” said the mother. — @ tannytkay