
Over seven years, the man allegedly told the woman he was
saving her relatives from death every time he raped her. He allegedly threatened to kill anyone that
the woman would narrate her ordeal to.
The man claimed that he was communicating with goblins that
told him the woman and her relatives would die for helping him and he could
transfer the curse of death to his family members by having sex with her.
A stunned Bulawayo magistrate, Mr Joseph Mabeza, on
Thursday heard how the man, whose name has been withheld to protect the
identity of the victim, would slap the woman and hit her with a wooden spoon
before raping her.
The accused, through his lawyer, Mr Tinashe Runganga,
pleaded not guilty to rape and domestic violence charges. He was remanded out of custody to August 29 on $100 bail.
The man said he was in an intimate relationship with the
complainant and the allegations against him were fabricated.
“My client did not rape the woman; she consented to the
sexual intercourse as the two were lovers.
“If he had been sexually abusing her as she alleges he did,
why did she not report the matter to the police from the time when it started?”
asked the lawyer.
“She enjoyed the sexual encounters and it is only now that
she has decided to report the matter as her relationship with my client has
turned sour,” said Mr Runganga.
The court heard that the accused person and the complainant
had known each other since 2009 when the woman hired him to fix her car.
Prosecuting, Ms Caroline Matanga said on May 6 in 2011, the
complainant found the accused person at the Bulawayo City Hall alleging that he
had nowhere to go as his family was having problems with the Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and he feared for his life.
“The complainant had compassion over him and took the man
to her home where she allocated him a spare bedroom until he had sorted out his
life,” she said.
Ms Matanga said from that time the accused person would
tell the woman scary stories about his life.She said the complainant sometimes
received threatening text messages from unknown numbers involving the accused
person and was therefore always intimidated.
In December 2011, the accused person allegedly told the
complainant that he loved her and had made a sacrifice on her behalf. He
claimed that he was talking to goblins who had told him that her relatives were
all going to die and in their place he sacrificed his relatives.
“The man said the sacrifice was out of goodwill but
sometime in January 2012 he told the complainant that the goblins were
threatening to kill his brother if he did not have sexual intercourse with her.
He induced fear in the complainant and forcibly had protected sexual
intercourse with her,” said the prosecutor.
The court heard the accused person had sex with the
complainant numerous times, sometimes without protection, between January 2012
and February 2019.
On some occasions the man would demand money from the
complainant and order her to borrow from her children, relatives and friends.
He would punch, kick and slap the woman all over her body and threaten to kill
anyone whom the complainant would tell.
In February this year, the court heard, the woman finally
braved up and told her younger sister about the abuse.Ms Matanga said the
sibling secretly reported the matter to the police leading to the accused
person’s arrest. Chronicle
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