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A very starved teenage maid from Bulawayo’s Gwabalanda suburb yesterday told a magistrate the “devil” tricked her into “raping” her employer’s two-year-old son.
Senior regional magistrate Mark Dzira sentenced Melissa Ncube, 18, to 10 years in prison for forcing the tot to have sex with her. Ncube, who pleaded guilty to aggravated indecent assault, was caught when the boy approached his mother asking her to do what Ncube had been doing with him.
Passing sentence, Dzira blasted Ncube for using a toddler to satisfy her sexual urges.
“Such flagrant abuse was done out of cruelty as I can’t see how you benefited after forcing a two-year-old to insert his organ into yours. You could’ve approached an adult to quench your sexual desires than expose a toddler to sexually transmitted infections especially the deadly ones like HIV,” said the magistrate.
“At 18 you may be sexually active but to abuse a two-year-old who doesn’t even know what sex means remains unbelievable. You breached the trust the mother bestowed on you by employing you and leaving her son with you.”
Dzira said Ncube was dirty-minded and deserved to be punished severely.
“The court has taken into account that you’re a youthful first offender who pleaded guilty and didn’t waste the court’s time. However ordering you to pay a fine or imposing community service will not suffice as it’ll be equal to giving you a passport to continue sexually abusing minors,” he said.
Magistrate Dzira also bemoaned the increase in child sexual abuse cases in the country.
“Your sentence must deter like-minded criminals who take advantage of innocent children. You’re sentenced to 10 years imprisonment of which three years are suspended for five years on condition that you don’t commit a crime of a sexual nature.”
In mitigation, Ncube told the court that she succumbed to temptation which led her to have sexual intercourse with the toddler.
