Beitbridge, Zimbabwe: The case of 53-year-old cross-border transporter who allegedly raped his daughter are set to have a trial on Thursday, Jan 18, 2024. The case is of Beitbridge, where a man raped his daughter from the time when she turned 13 for over three years until she fell pregnant.
The accused was put in custody as he raped his daughter for three continuous years until she got pregnant at the age of 16 last year.
Reportedly, the man has denied the charges of three rape in front of Beitbridge Regional Magistrate – Innocent Bepura.
The accused man had a daughter from his previous marriage. He, along with his new wife, colluded to abort the pregnancy in Dec 2023 illegally. The 47-year-old stepmother has already been put behind bars for four years by the local magistrate for initiating the illegal abortion.
Proceeding the case, Tsitsi Mutukwa narrated that in Aug 2020, the accused father arrived home at night and found his 13-year-old daughter with her stepmother and other children. In the evening, when everyone went to bed to sleep, he remained with the girl who was busy doing some school holiday work.
He then approached her with an excuse of helping her with schoolwork, and during the process, he started caressing her body and then raped her while she sat on his lap, after which he told her to go and sleep.
As per the sources, the man tried to rape the girl in her bedroom in Oct 2022 but failed after seeing that she was sleeping with her elder sister. The court found out that the man raped the girl in Sep 2023 after creeping up on her when she fell asleep while watching television.
Later, in Sep 2023, the girl realised that she was pregnant and told a church leader in Nov, who then reported to a local pastor.
Afterwards, on Dec 3, 2023, the stepmother discovered the pregnancy and asked the girl who the father was. The teenager narrated the incident and then the stepmother bought medication to terminate the pregnancy as a way of concealing the offence.
The issue started highlighting when one of the girl’s friends heard about this and advised the religious leader to make a police report.
Then, the girl was taken to the Beitbridge District Hospital for medical attention, where the doctors discovered the terminated pregnancy of the girl. Proceeding further with the case, the couple was arrested, and the medication used in the illegal abortion was also recovered from their house.