A 52-year-old Tsholotsho man who raped and infected his nine-year-old cousin with HIV left the courtroom in stitches when he said he was “as good as dead” as he pleaded for a lesser sentence before regional magistrate Joseph Mabeza.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the minor, was facing rape charges and pleaded guilty but pleaded with the magistrate to give him a six-year sentence due to his failing health.
“May the court give me six years in prison because I am as good as dead. I am not healthy and I am HIV-positive. I have a wife and three children to look after,” he pleaded.
But the magistrate didn’t put that into consideration as he had no kind words for him.
As a result,, he sentenced him to an effective 15 years in jail.
“It is really sad that you raped your own cousin, your aunt’s daughter,” charged Mabeza.
“Now the child is going to live with the virus because of you. Don’t worry about your HIV status; you are going to meet people in jail who are also HIV-positive.”
He went on: “I wonder how you were feeling when you were sexually abusing someone who is 43 years younger than you. Instead of protecting your relative, you decided to rape her. You really need to go to jail for quite some time.”
According to the State, sometime in May last year at around 3pm, the complainant was left in the man’s custody by her grandmother.
A few minutes after her grandmother left, the man started to demand sex from the complainant who refused, the court heard.
The accused reportedly then raped the girl once but as a way of hiding the crime, he promised to give her some money if she did not reveal the matter to anyone.
However, the complainant did not listen to that as she told her brother about the rape, but he did not take her seriously.
As fate would have it, the matter came to light sometime in November last year when the juvenile tested HIV-positive during an HIV outreach programme at her school.
After being quizzed that is when she revealed that she was raped and a police report was filed, leading to the man’s arrest.—Jeffrey Muvundusi in BULAWAYO
