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Yeukai Karengezeka Herald Correspondent
A Chitungwiza man was yesterday jailed 14 years effective for raping a 20-year-old mentally-challenged woman.

Simbarashe Mazoni (28) was convicted by Chitungwiza regional magistrate Mrs Estere Chivasa after a full trial.

He was initially sentenced to 16 years in prison before two years were suspended on condition of good behaviour.

In passing the sentence, Mrs Chivasa blasted Mazoni for his behaviour which she said was unacceptable.

“This is a rare case where a culprit was caught red-handed abusing a mentally-challenged person and the arrest was effected by another civilian,” she said.

“There is need to protect the society from unruly people like you, worse, you deflowered the victim and failed even to use protection, exposing her to sexually-transmitted diseases.”

In mitigation, Mazoni begged Mrs Chivasa to give him community service as he was the breadwinner in his family.

Medical reports indicated that the complainant was a mental patient who was also unable to speak.

Prosecutor Mr Tendai Mukariri proved that on January 12, the complainant’s aunt left for Mayambara at around 2pm, leaving the complainant alone at home.

At around 2.30pm the informant who is a neighbour to the complainant was informed by other residents that a man had entered the complaint’s yard.

When he went inside to inquire, he was told by Mazoni that the complainant’s aunt had relocated and he went back to his residence.

The court heard that he went and asked his wife if the complainant’s aunt had relocated, but was told that she was still staying there.

The informant went back to the complainant’s house and found the door closed, but not locked and pushed it to gain entry whereupon he found Mazoni raping the complainant.

The informant took both parties to the police station where he filed a report.