Corpun file 19110

Sunday Mail, Harare, 29 October 2006

16-year-old to be caned for intimacy

Metro Reporter

A SEKE 5 High School student has been sentenced to two strokes of the cane for being intimate with a 15-year-old girl at the same school.

The 16-year-old schoolboy got the punishment from Chitungwiza magistrate Mrs Michelle Gudo who found him guilty of contravening Section 70 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9: 23.

Mitigation

In mitigation, the boy said he was sitting for final Ordinary Level examinations adding that the girl had misled him into believing that she was 16 years old.

The girl admitted before the courts that she had lied to her boyfriend about her age.

However, the court found the boy guilty as charged saying he should have further investigated the age of the girl since he was in doubt.

Before the court hearing, the mother is said to have tried to influence her daughter to deny having lied about her age.

The girl, however, refused resulting in the angry mother almost dumping her in the prosecutor, Mr Norman Mugiya's offices.

Mr Mugiya is said to have sat down with the mother and counselled her on how her daughter was inclined to tell the truth in the court of law.

Outlining the charges, Mr Mugiya said sometime in August this year, the accused became intimate with the complainant who is below the age of consent as defined under the Sexual Offences Act.

The two are said to have become intimate after the girl went to the house of the accused to collect her photos.

On another day during that same month, the girl was chucked out of the home by her mother after coming home late.

The mother later took her to a medical doctor who revealed that her genitals had been tempered with resulting in a police report being made.

Investigations led to the arrest of the boy.