By Staff Reporter
HARARE-A man jailed for 20-years for allegedly raping the daughter of sungura musician Alick Macheso will only serve a 12-month prison sentence for indecent assault after the High Court quashed the rape sentence.
Nathan Tsotombe(26) was in October last year sentenced to a 20-year jail term after Harare regional magistrate Fadzai Mtombeni convicted him of raping Macheso’s 19-year old daughter after getting her intoxicated while in the process of making tattoos on her.
After the conviction, Tsotombe filed an appeal in the High Court challenging both conviction and sentence, arguing that he had not sexually abused the girl.
His assertions were confirmed by the doctor’s report which ruled out that the girl had been sexually abused while she was unconscious as alleged by the State.
High Court judges Justices Felistas Chatukuta and David Mangota granted Stotombe’s appeal and quashed his conviction and sentence but instead found him guilty of indecent assault.
The judges found Stotombe guilty of indecent assault after the prosecutor produced photographs showing Stotombe smooching the musician’s unconscious daughter.
The court heard that the incident occurred sometime in July last year when the girl, who wanted to be tattooed, met Stotombe in Harare’s central business district.
Stotombe had initially been accused of intoxicating the girl before raping her and shooting photos of her nude body while she lay unconscious and circulating them on social media.
The court further heard on the day in question Stotombe told the teenager that the tattooing process was to be done at his friend’s residence where upon arrival she was led to a back room where Stotombe and his friends started drawing the tattoos. However, when the girl complained of pain, she was given some beer under the pretext that it would lessen the pain but when she drank she passed out.
The court heard Stotombe took the opportunity to sexually molest her leading to his arrest alongside his friend who was later acquitted of the rape charges that had also been preferred against him.
