Harare, (New Ziana) – A Buhera septuagenarian has been jailed to an effective 10 years imprisonment for rape, the National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ) has reported.

Aaron Njuko from Chief Nyashanu’s area pleaded guilty and was convicted by the Rusape Magistrates’ Court for the rape of a 7-year-old girl. The State case was that Njuko and his victim lived in the same village. On June 26 this year, Njuko called the complainant who was herding cattle alone. He dragged her to a secluded place where he raped her.

He was caught in the act by the complainant’s sister who was looking for the complainant, and a police report was made leading to his arrest. Separately, the NPAZ said the Bindura Magistrates’ Court sentenced a 25-year-old man from Mushumbi Pools to 20 years imprisonment for the rape of a married woman he accosted as she walked home from a local growth point.

The man, from Majongwe village, in March confronted his victim as she walked along a footpath that passed through a sorghum field. The man emerged from a thick bush armed with a log and demanded to have sex with her but she refused.

She surrendered the bag of mealie-meal she was carrying and begged the man to let her go but he refused. She tried to run away shouting for help, but he chased and grabbed her by the neck, tripped her to the ground and raped her after which he fled from the scene. The complainant went home and narrated her ordeal to her husband.

On April 5, the man was arrested over the theft of a motorbike and was linked to the rape case.

The complainant positively identified the rapist at an identification parade.

New Ziana