A 37-YEAR-OLD man from Nyamandlovu in Matabeleland North province has been slapped with a 15-year jail sentence for raping a 14-year-old mentally challenged girl.
Shelton Ncube appeared before Bulawayo regional magistrate Elijah Singano facing two charges of rape.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges but was convicted and sentenced after a full trial.
Ncube will however, serve an effective 12 years behind bars after three years of the sentence were suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour.
When he was asked by the magistrate on why he committed the offence Ncube said he was trying to help the victim who was staying with her stepmother.
“The victim pleaded with me to help her as she was staying with her father and stepmother. That is why I decided to help her and I also promised to buy her clothes and some beauty products,” said Ncube.
The court heard that on 4 May and at around 1pm, Ncube approached the victim who was selling dried vegetables along a dust road in village 7 Acute and Crews and requested to have sexual intercourse with her in exchange for groceries.
He then asked her to follow him to the bush and she complied. When they got there Ncube spread his jacket on the ground and told her to lie down and he raped her.
While they were engaging in the act, they were seen by a passerby and Ncube fled from the scene leaving the victim behind.
The passerby then escorted the victim to the main road where they met Ncube who then threatened him ordering him to leave the victim saying she was his wife.
Ncube then instructed the victim to wait for him at a grid along Nyamandlovu Ticehurst road as he was going to look for his cattle.
Later on that day at around 5pm, Ncube went to the grid where he found the victim waiting for him and he then raped her again.
After the act, Ncube gave the victim two bars of green bar soap and 500g of salt and he then instructed her to go home.
The matter came to light on the same day when the victim sought a place to sleep at the village head, Charity Sibanda’s homestead who inquired on why she had arrived home late and she narrated the rape ordeal to her.
Sibanda then went to Ncube’s homestead and escorted him together with the victim to the police station and a report of rape was filed against him.
The teenager was referred to Nyamandlovu Hospital for medical examination and a medical report was produced in court as evidence.
