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Courtney Matende Midlands Reporter
A Shurugwi couple has been sentenced to 20 years each for kidnapping a 14-year-old girl before the wife assisted her husband to rape her.

The couple gave the girl 50 cents and wild fruits to buy her silence.

This was heard when Daniso Sibanda (52) and his wife Vongai Hunwe (28) of Ruzive Village under Chief Banga in Shurugwi appeared before Gweru regional magistrate Mrs Phathekile Msipa facing rape charges.

The couple was convicted of rape after a full trial.

Mrs Msipa sentenced Sibanda to 20 years for raping the minor and Hunwe to 20 years for playing a part in the abduction and subsequent rape.

The couple will each serve 15 years after Mrs Msipa removed five years from each of their sentences on condition of good behaviour.

“You connived as husband and wife to abduct the minor and the second accused (Hunwe) assisted the first accused to rape the innocent girl,” she said. “Society frowns on such immoral behaviour.

“The first accused is sentenced to 20 years in prison because the court proved that he raped the minor, while the second accused is sentenced to 20 years for having assisted the first accused in raping the minor.”

It was the State case that on March 12, the complainant was playing at a friend’s home when Hunwe asked her to accompany her to her homestead to fetch some wild fruits.

The court heard that when they got there, Hunwe called her husband Sibanda who was herding cattle.

The couple ordered the complainant to get into their bedroom hut, but she refused.

Sibanda and Hunwe dragged the complainant into the bedroom hut where Sibanda demanded to have sexual intercourse with her.

He undressed, while Hunwe was holding the minor, before raping her.

Mr Bernard Nyoni appeared for the State.