Father arrested after four year old girl teaches friends explicit sex positions

Caught teaching her friends explicit sex positions exposed a four-year-old's rapist father. 31-year-old father (name withheld to protect the victim) from a village under Chief Njelele in Gokwe, Zimbabwe, has been slapped with a 40-year jail sentence after he was convicted of raping his daughter on two occasions.

Although the State could only provide evidence for two occasions, the toddler, however, insisted that she was raped several times, usually on Sundays while her mother was at church.

The father had pleaded not guilty when he appeared before Gokwe-Kwekwe regional magistrate Mr Amos Mbobo facing two counts of rape. He was convicted after a full trial and sentenced to 40 years, 20 for each count. Mr Mbobo suspended 10 years on condition of good behavior.

In passing the sentence, Mr Mbobo expressed concern over the alarming increase in cases of rape in Gokwe and Kwekwe districts and said there was a need for perpetrators to get lengthy custodial sentences.

"Gokwe has recorded an alarming increase in rape cases. In light of this deterrent measures must be put in place to reduce such cases," he said.

The State's case was that sometime this year, during the period extending from February to March, the accused, who is the father to the complainant, raped the girl several times on Sundays, taking advantage of her mother's absence.

Sometime in February, on a date unknown to the prosecutor, the accused's wife went to church and left the girl with her father.

The court heard that, the accused seized the opportunity and forcibly had sexual intercourse with the complainant and told her not to tell her mother.

It is understood that the accused used the same method to rape the complainant on several other occasions. The complainant alleged that she had lost count of the number of times she had sex with her father though she remembered the last two incidents.

The matter came to light when the girl tried to teach her peers some of the sex positions she learnt during the time she was being sexually abused, raising suspicion from neighbours that she had been raped.

The neighbours confronted the mother who interrogated the child and she revealed that she had been taught by her father.

The matter was reported to the police, leading to the man's arrest. Mr Robert Ndlala appeared for the State.