A 14-YEAR-OLD girl pleaded with a magistrate not to sentence her 30-year-old lover to jail, saying she was not raped, but instead loved the man.
PRESTIGE GAMA OWN CORRESPONDENT
The girl said Ephraim Dube (30), accused of rape, had taken her in at a difficult time in her life, when she had been abandoned by her family.
“My family wanted me to say I was raped, but I was not,” she said. “Dube took me from my miserable life and loved me.”
But Western Commonage provincial magistrate Willard Mafios Moyo found Dube guilty of having sexual relations with a minor as defined by Section 70b of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act and sentenced him to 30 months in prison.
Six months of the sentence were suspended on condition that for five years he was not found guilty of a similar offence of sleeping with a minor, while 18 months were suspended on condition that he performs 545 hours of community service at Masotsha Primary School with effect from yesterday.
Prosecutor Mufaro Mageza told the court that the two were in a relationship for almost a month after the juvenile was sent away by her aunt, who said she was fed up with staying with her.
The girl then left her aunt to search for employment as a maid, where she worked for two weeks and quit.
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She said she met the accused while she was working as a maid.
“He took me to his house after a few days and promised to love me and he did,” she said.
The court also heard that the two stayed together for some time until the family of the girl started looking for her.
Rumours directed them to Dube’s house and they found the young girl doing dishes at her new home.
The brother dragged his younger sister to the police station and reportedly forced her to report that she was sleeping with Dube.
