Woman commits suicide after hubby rapes sister (13)

A Chitungwiza woman committed suicide by throwing herself into a well after she caught her husband raping her 13-year-old sister.

The 21-year-old man, who is employed as a soldier, allegedly took advantage of the absence of his now deceased wife to bed the minor on three occasions. He was not formally charged for three counts of rape last Friday when he appeared before Chitungwiza magistrate Mr Kudakwashe Jarabini.

He was remanded in custody to today for trial. According to the indictment papers, sometime in November 2011, the minor was staying with the man and his wife in Chitungwiza. In January this year, the man allegedly proposed love to the minor, but she turned him down.

During the same month, the minor’s late sister visited her friend in the same neighbourhood, leaving the man with the girl. Prosecutor Mr Wilson Matsika told the court that the man approached the girl and fondled her before raping her.

His wife returned and caught him in the act. Further allegations are that in April, the couple relocated to another area of the town where the man also forced himself on the girl in his wife’s absence.

The court heard that the girl’s sister failed to contain the abuse and committed suicide in May, forcing the girl to go and stay with her other sister in the same neighbourhood.

Mr Matsika alleged that on October 17, the man asked the girl to come to the shops on the pretext of giving her school shoes. It turned out that the shoe size was too small for the girl, leading the man to take the girl to a nearby village in Seke claiming that he wanted to give her a dress he had bought for her.

At the village, the man reportedly forced himself on the girl again. Upon arrival home at around 7pm, the girl’s sister asked her where she was coming from at that hour of the night and she told her that she had been with the man. The sister took the girl to the police where she revealed the alleged rape. The Herald