A HARARE man was on Thursday last week jailed 16 years for
raping a 22-year-old Mutare woman who he had met through a popular dating show
on ZBC’s National FM.
The convict, Charles Majura, will serve 11 years effective
jail time after magistrate Themba Kuwanda conditionally suspended five years.
In passing the sentence, Kuwanda ruled that Majura breached
the trust the woman had in him after she visited him in Harare.
“Within five minutes of meeting her, you behaved like a he
goat and raped the complainant. She will not trust or listen to the radio
programmes anymore. You deserve a harsher sentence to deter would-be
offenders,” the magistrate said.
The woman told the court that she could have been killed
since she did not tell anyone that she was meeting Majura.
She said she was raped 11 times throughout the night, but
Majura disputed the accusation, saying he only had sexual intercourse with her
four times.
The court heard that on April 2, the complainant (name
withheld to protect her identity) was listening to National FM’s adult radio
talk show, where interested listeners hook up with prospective marriage
partners.
She heard Majura’s request of an adult woman who wanted to
settle down and she took down his contact details. After being lured by Majura’s marriage proposal, the single
mother took interest.
The two’s relationship blossomed through WhatsApp chats
until Majura requested that she visits him in Westgate, Harare, where he
purportedly stayed.
The complainant visited Majura on May 25 at around 5pm and
he took her to his place of residence.
The complainant was appalled by the state of the house,
which was a wooden, tin-roofed cabin, different from what she had been made to
believe.
Majura then asked her to get into the house, but she
refused. He then forcefully dragged her into the cabin, telling her that she
was now his wife before raping her on a makeshift bed of metal sheets.
The matter came to light after the complainant escaped in
the morning and told a woman who was on her way to a church service about the
ordeal.
The woman accompanied the complainant to the police to make
a report, leading to Majura’s arrest. Newsday
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