Story by Tapiwa Machemedze
A 50-year-old Bindura man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping his brother’s 9-year-old daughter.
The man will spend 17 years behind bars after regional magistrate Shingai Mutiro suspended three years on the condition the convict does not commit a similar offence.
The court heard that on 13 January, the minor went with her mother to visit her father’s younger brother.
The girl dodged her mother as they went home and returned to ask for cucumbers from the accused who then raped her.
The matter came to light on 16 January when the girl’s mother sent her to fetch salt from the accused’s house and she refused to say she was raped.
The mother took the minor to Bindura Police Station, leading to the arrest of the convict.
Meanwhile, a 40-year-old Glendale woman Snikiwe Sombrero committed suicide by consuming grain-preserving tablets after pouring hot cooking oil on her husband.
Mashonaland Central police spokesperson, Inspector Milton Mundembe said on 16 January this year, Sombrero confronted her husband Kudzai Netsiwe on whether he was having extra-marital affairs and he did not respond.
She quietly boiled cooking oil and scalded Netsiwe who was burnt on his face and chest.
Sombrero panicked upon hearing her husband scream and swallowed the grain preservatives.
A co-tenant at the house ran to their room where she saw the couple writhing in agony and ferried them to the hospital.
She was pronounced dead on arrival at Concession Hospital, while the husband was admitted for treatment.
