The Sunday News
AN HIV-positive man from Kwekwe has been slapped with a 40-year jail sentence after he was convicted of raping and infecting a 13-year-old with a sexually transmitted infection.
Canaan Magen’a (31) of Masaga Mine Compound in Kwekwe had pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape when he appeared before Gokwe-Kwekwe regional magistrate, Mr Amos Mbobo.
He was convicted and sentenced to 40 years.
Mr Mbobo, however, suspended five years on condition of good behaviour.
The State’s case was that sometime in August last year on dates unknown to the prosecutor, Magen’a, who was diagnosed with HIV, raped the minor on two different occasions and infected her with an STI.
On the first incident, Magen’a, who was drunk, forced himself on the girl who told her sister but no action was taken.
Magen’a raped her again on another day during the same month but the girl’s sister tried to conceal the heinous act by obstructing her from reporting the matter to the police.
The matter, however, came to light when she fled from home as a result of the abuse and started working as a domestic worker.
The court heard that the girl’s employer noticed that she was having difficulties in walking and inquired. The girl revealed that she had been raped twice by Magen’a.
The matter was reported to the police leading to Magen’a’s arrest.
Mr Rober Ndlala appeared for the State.
In an unrelated incident, a 35-year-old axe-wielding serial rapist from Gokwe has been slapped with a 20-year jail sentence after he was found guilty of raping an 18-year-old woman while her helpless mother looked on when he appeared before the same court.
Patrick Dube, of no fixed abode, who had pleaded not guilty was convicted after a contested trial and sentenced to an effective 20 years.
In passing the sentence, Mr Mbobo said the court took into consideration that rape was a brutal invasion of the victim’s privacy and dignity and above all it destroyed the victim’s feeling of physical and mental integrity.
He said the court also took into consideration that the rape was accompanied by violence hence the stiffer penalty.
The State’s case was that on 12 May, Dube ambushed the complainant and her mother who were coming from a nearby bush to fetch firewood.
Dube, who was armed with an axe, grabbed the complainant by her neck before attacking her mother and attempting to strike her with an axe after she tried to rescue her daughter.
He tripped the complainant to the ground before raping her once while placing an axe on her neck.
Dube went on to threaten the complainant with death if she reported the matter to anyone.
The complainant and her mother went and reported the matter to the police leading to Dube’s arrest.
