A 27-year-old woman, who claims to have been sexually
abused by High Court judge Justice Sylvia Chirau’s husband, said she was scared
to report the matter because she thought it would be blocked because of the
accused’s wife’s status.
Cleopas Mugomba (44) appeared before Harare magistrate Ms
Bianca Makwande charged with raping the woman. The matter was rolled over to today for trial continuation.
The complainant said she started working at Mugomba’s
residence after she was referred by Justice Chirau’s friend.
Allegations are that on June 7, Mugomba returned from work
and asked the complainant to accompany him to a house in Borrowdale where she
was to do some cleaning.
Mugomba reportedly drove towards his workplace instead of
the said house in Borrowdale.
On arrival at the workplace, they found some people there
already whereupon Mugomba told the complainant that the cleaning had been
cancelled.
The two left the office and proceeded to Borrowdale where
the complainant entered one of the rooms and began cleaning it.
Mugomba allegedly asked the complainant to see him off
before pushing her against the wall and unbuttoning her uniform.
The complainant tried to fend him off, but was overpowered
by Mugomba who proceeded to remove his clothes and raped her.
Afterwards, Mugomba’s friend who he called Simba arrived. While the complainant was alone with Simba, she asked him
about Mugomba’s intentions and he told her that he wanted to sleep with her
because she was a rural girl.
The complainant did not tell Simba about the rape incident. On another date while Justice Chirau was out of town,
Mugomba allegedly took the complainant to the Borrowdale house again and
attempted to rape her.
He saw the complainant holding a phone and thought that she
was taking pictures of him.
Mugomba confronted her and grabbed the phone and she
managed to escape. She met a man, who
was only identified as Mr Khumalo and asked for 50 cents for transport.
Mr Khumalo noticed that the woman was crying and asked her
what was wrong and she told him.
Khumalo advised her to report the matter to the police, but
she indicated that she was afraid since Mugomba’s wife was a High Court judge.
The complainant was later escorted to the police and
reported the matter.
Mugomba arrived while holding the complainant’s phone which
he refused to hand over to the police and was arrested. Herald
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