WOMEN calling for life imprisonment and castration of rapists are justified, as man seem not to be deterred by heavy sentences since rape cases continue on the increase.
Albert Ncube Own Correspondent
Gwanda regional magistrate Mark Dzira said this while sentencing a 25-year-old Filabusi man to 33 years behind bars for kidnapping and three counts of raping an 11-year-old girl.
Genius Moyo of Insiza Primary School had pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping and one of rape, but denied the other two rape counts, although he was still convicted on all four counts.
He blamed evil spirits for his cruel act.
“The complainant is aged 11 and we all saw when she came to testify that she is just a kid,” Dzira said.
“No doubt she was traumatised, as you made her spend the whole night in the mountains. You are cruel, heartless, and you did not care what would happen to her after you raped her.
“She could have been eaten by wild animals, got lost or died of hunger because of you.”
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He said there was a movement countrywide to have rapists either sentenced to life sentences or castrated and people like Moyo justified such calls.
“There is an outcry from women across the country who want men like you to be sent to prison for life, others have even suggested you be castrated and no one can blame them for that,” Dzira said.
“People want to see criminals like you being punished. I will not be lenient, as people like you need to be uprooted from society. We will not be deterred.”
Moyo was sentenced to five years for kidnapping, 12 years for the first count of rape and 18 years for the third and fourth counts.
Ten years were wholly suspended for five years.
On November 19 this year at around 4pm Moyo, in a drunken stupor, met the young girl who had been sent to buy some tomatoes by a neighbour.
Moyo grabbed the girl, dragging her to Matjola Mountain.
While atop the mountain, Moyo raped her. In the process he assaulted her and threatened to kill the girl with an axe and a knife he was carrying.
After some time he raped her again and when he heard some voices he took theyoung girl’s T-shirt and used it to stuff her mouth before he hid in a cave.
When the voices diminished he raped her again before taking his opaque beer and a bottle of cane spirits, leaving the girl behind with her mouth still stuffed.
The fatigued girl then fell into a slumber. She woke up the next morning and tried to get up, but she could not walk properly because of pain.
Later in the day at around 6pm, 26 hours into her ordeal, a villager found her and alerted her mother before she was taken to a health centre.
Moyo’s green sun-hat, which he dropped during the act, was produced as part of the evidence in court, while the girl positively identified him as the person who raped her.
