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Lovemore Meya Court Correspondent
A 46-year old teacher in Chitungwiza who visited his 20-year old sister-in-law’s house on the pretext of resolving her alleged illicit affair and later raped her, will spend the next nine years in jail for the crime. The man, from Unit A, visited the woman’s house during her husband’s absence.

He denied the rape charges before Chitungwiza regional magistrate Mrs Estere Chivasa but was convicted after prosecutor Ms Karen Kunaka proved a strong case against him. He was slapped with 12 years in jail with three years set aside for five years.

Through his lawyer, the man said: “I went to the complainant’s house at around 10:30am to resolve a dispute in which she was alleged to be involved in an extra-marital affair. “The complainant lied to her boyfriend that she was not married, yet she is the wife to my nephew who was away at work.”

Mrs Chivasa dismissed the claims. “The claims that accused wanted to resolve issues of infidelity hold no water since the complainant’s niece went to the house to find out why she (complainant) was crying.

“She found the door locked from inside and this completely destroys accused person’s defence. His visits to her house were up to no good. If he truly wanted to solve the problems, he would talk to other relatives,” said Mrs Chivasa.

The rape took place on May 24 this year, at around 3pm when the man sneaked into the complainant’s house while she was sleeping. The sister-in-law told the court that she never bothered to look at the door as he entered thinking it was her sister’s daughter.