ALBERT NCUBE OWN CORRESPONDENT GWANDA regional magistrate Joseph Mabeza yesterday sent a stern warning to child abusers that the courts would not tolerate sexual attacks on children, when he sentenced three men to a total of 49 years in prison for rape. Cornelius Ndlovu (27) of Bekezela township in Filabusi was sentenced to 22 years behind bars for two counts of rape and one of aggravated indecent assault perpetrated on three children below the aged of six. It was the State’s case that on March 1, Ndlovu asked the three girls to accompany him and promised them some money. He went with them to a nearby house under construction where he performed a series of sex attacks on them. Ndlovu raped two of them once before molesting the third girl. The matter came to light the same day when the girls were being bathed and they started complaining of pain in their private parts. On being quizzed, they narrated their ordeal at the hands of Ndlovu, leading to his arrest. Ndlovu was sentenced to 10 years on each count of rape of the girls aged six and four years respectively and two years for aggravated indecent assault on the four-year-old. He will, however, spend an effective 12 years in prison after Mabeza ordered that the 10-year imprisonment terms imposed for rape run concurrently. In another case, a 27-year-old West Nicholson man, who lured his seven-year-old niece into his bedroom and raped her once, was sentenced to 12 years in jail. Mabeza said rape on young children was abhorrent and corrupted the innocent minds of children and also exposed them to HIV and Aids and sexually transmitted infections. He added that rape marred the dignity of the survivor. Obvious Muswede Muleya (29) of Chapfuche village who raped a 47-year-old woman before robbing her of a Nokia X2 cellphone and R10 at knife point was sentenced to an effective 15 years in prison for rape and armed robbery.
