A 51-year-old man caused a stir in the courtroom
as he insisted that his daughter was in love with him. The man who had been treating his daughter like a wife and r*ped her from 2010 when she was 14 until last month has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The shocking incident happened in Zimbabwe.
New Zimbabwe reports that the man who worked as a taxi driver operating at Harare Central hospital, did not deny sleeping with his daughter but shocked the court when he said they were in love. He insisted that the act was consensual. The two have a child who is now 5-years-old.
According to a Harare court, the man is quoted as saying: “I proposed love to her when she was still 14. She initially turned my request down but later fell in love with me. I never forced her to bed; it was consensual s*x."
Magistrate Adonia Masawi retorted: “Why then did you marry her mother? The court wonders how you could have sexual intercourse with your flesh and blood. This is unimaginable and it is the court’s duty to send people like you to prison.”
The man was charge to court after the daughter had confided in her brother's neighbour about the incestuous act. The neighbour in-turn related the news to the brother who now took measures to lock their father.
The girl's brother who had sought advice from their 70-year-old grandfather was disappointed to realize that the grandfather had planned to also abuse his granddaughter. Court heard the grandfather threatened to report incest if the girl refused to sleep with him. The teenager gave in and slept with her grandfather in a bid to avoid the scandal becoming public.
However, concerned members of the community tipped police in Waterfalls and Chitungwiza as well as Epworth using suggestion boxes. The grandfather was arrested, prompting the girl’s father to flee. The rapist father went to Nyanga where he reportedly sought help from a traditional healer.
Prosecutor Norman Tsarwe said the father told the traditional healer his story and wanted the n’anga to stop the police investigations into the case. However, the traditional healer secretly called the police who arrested the father at his homestead.
The grandfather’s trial is still ongoing
