A Gutu man has been jailed for an effective 18 years for raping his five-year-old daughter.

The man (25) from Mazongororo village forcibly took his daughter from his mother-in-law on the pretext he wanted to send her to school but ended up raping her.

Masvingo regional magistrate Mr Bishard Chineka had initially sentenced the man to 20 years behind bars but conditionally suspended two years for five years on condition of good behaviour.

The agreed facts are that the child was staying with her grandmother in another area in Mazongororo village when the man approached his mother-in-law in mid April this year and demanded to have his daughter.

After facing resistance from the mother-in-law, he claimed he wanted to send his daughter to school and he took the daughter away by force.

He stayed with the daughter in his two-roomed house where he shared blankets with her. On 30 April, he raped her once.

The victim’s sister who was sleeping in the next room was alerted by the noise as the little girl cried the whole night after being raped by her father.

The next morning the sister alerted other villagers who approached the man and forcibly took the victim back to her grandmother.

A day later, the grandmother noticed some bruises on the girl as she bathed her and upon probing, she disclosed that she had been raped by her father.

A report was made to police and a medical examination conducted at Gutu Rural Hospital confirmed the rape leading to the man’s arrest

Mr Liberty Hove appeared for the State.

Meanwhile, a Chitungwiza man has been slapped with an effective 11-year jail sentence for raping a 17-year-old schoolgirl with disabilities.

The man lured the girl to his house where he abused her before he threatened her with a knife if she disclosed the abuse.

The girl uses crutches to walk.

Chitungwiza Magistrate Noel Mupeyiwa had initially sentenced Shepherd Mabvuto (39) to 14 years imprisonment but conditionally suspended three years of his sentence.

Prosecutor Lovet Muringwa convinced the court that on January 6 this year, Mabvuto went to the girl’s residence and asked her to follow him to his house and she complied.

On arrival, he pushed the girl to the bed and took a knife from a drawer threatening to kill her if she made any noise.- The Herald