A FATHER is defending his own daughter’s alleged rapist in a classic case of colluding motives.
The alleged rapist, Tavengwa Timire, 34, a teacher at Gebbuza High School in Hwange, has been arrested for allegedly raping his wife’s mentally challenged younger sister on numerous occasions.
Timire of Ingagula in Hwange, pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of rape when he appeared before Hwange regional magistrate Dambudzo Malunga.
Interestingly, the victim’s father will today testify in favour of the alleged rapist son-in-law.
Timire, an Art teacher, claimed his wife’s younger sister, based in Bulawayo, was out to fix him.
“We had consensual sex,” Timire told the magistrate as he disputed that the victim, 20, is mentally retarded.
He was staying together with the victim in Hwange when the alleged abuse took place in 2010 and 2011 until she moved in with another sister in Nkulumane 5, Bulawayo. The woman was once his student at Gebbuza and Timire could not explain the kind of grudge that would make her fabricate rape charges against him.
The court heard Timire’s wife, the alleged victim and their sister based in Bulawayo were now not on talking terms as the accused’s wife begrudges them for reporting her husband who she had been shielding since 2011 to protect her marriage.
Prosecuting, Tawanda Sigauke said the alleged rape started in April 2010.
“Sometime in April 2010, the accused sneaked into the victim’s bedroom and raped her once. In September 2010, Timire again entered the spare bedroom and had sex with the complainant,” said Sigauke.
The court heard that Timire’s wife, who suspected that her husband was having an affair with her sister, had also sneaked into the room and was hiding under the bed while the two had sex. She allegedly slapped her younger sister but didn’t report the case, the court heard.
“Between January and August 2011, Timire allegedly raped the victim several times as he would enter her bedroom in the absence of his wife,” said Sigauke.
The matter came to light when the victim relocated to stay with the Bulawayo-based sister and revealed to her how Timire had been sexually abusing her.
The court heard that for some time, the Bulawayo-based sister tried to engage her elder sister (Timire’s wife) on the issue but she chose to keep quiet to protect her husband and her marriage.
“He approached me begging for an out of court settlement but I refused because he took advantage of my sister’s mental condition and connived with his wife to conceal the crime,” the victim’s Bulawayo-based sister told the court.
A report was made at Nkulumane Police Station leading to Timire’s arrest.-State Media