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Tendai Rupapa Senior Court Reporter
A prison officer allegedly raped and impregnated his 12-year-old step-daughter while his wife was away.

It is the State’s case that the matter came to light when the victim’s aunt noticed that her tummy was bulging.

She is now seven months pregnant. The accused appeared before Harare magistrate Ms Barbra Chimboza charged with rape.

He was not asked to plead to the charge and was remanded in custody to May 23 pending trial.

He was advised to approach the High Court for bail application due to the gravity of his offence.

The prosecutor Ms Linda Gadzikwa alleged that sometime in November last year, the victim visited her mother and stepfather in Harare.

The girl’s mother then went to South Africa on a business trip and the complainant was left in the custody of the accused person together with her young sister and brother, the court heard.

Ms Gadzikwa said during his wife’s absence, the accused went into the bedroom where the complainant was sleeping with her siblings.

He then asked the girl’s siblings to go and sleep in the kitchen, the State alleged.

When they had left the bedroom, the accused allegedly locked the door and asked the complainant to have sexual intercourse with her, but she refused.

He suddenly gagged her mouth with his hand before raping her once, the court heard.

It is alleged that the complainant was threatened and ordered not to reveal the matter to anyone.

The complainant later spilled the beans to her aunt who had noticed and interrogated her about her bulging stomach.

The matter was reported to the police after the victim’s mother returned from South Africa.