The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Tuesday, January 5, 1993 — Fathers have a duty to protect their daughters from rapists, and it is disgraceful to find fathers sexually molesting their children, a Bulawayo regional magistrate, Mr Wilbert Mapombere, said yesterday.

Mr Mapombere said this when he sentenced a 46-yearold man for raping his daughter 12 times to an effective 10 years in prison.

Mr Mapombere said this was the worst case of rape he had encountered throughout his term as regional magistrate. He said this was aggravated by the fact that rape cases involving young girls were on the increase.

The prosecutor, Mr Maxwell Takuva, told the court that between December 20, 1986 and sometime in April 1988, the man raped his 13-year-old daughter 12 times. On several occasions he took advantage of other people’s absence at their Thorngrove home to commit the act.

On April 23, 1987, the girl made a report about the rape to her stepmother. The stepmother confronted her husband about the rape which he agreed to have committed. This resulted in the girl being sent to attend school in Gwanda, the court heard.

When she came to Bulawayo for the holidays, her father started sexually molesting her again. The court heard that sometimes he would claim to be taking her for driving lessons while using this as a pretext to rape her.

On April 18, 1989, when the girl could no longer take it, she made a report to the police, leading to the arrest of her father.

The man was sentenced to a total of 17 years in prison. Seven years of the total will run concurrently with the other 10 years.

Mr Samp Mlaudzi, for the defence, applied for bail pending an appeal against both conviction and sentence, but his application was thrown out by the court.