NKHOTAKOTA--Nkhotakota First Grade Magistrate Court has sentenced a 30 year old man to 50 months imprisonment with hard labour (IHL) after finding him guilty of indecent assault. The man is reported to have had carnal knowledge of a nine-year-old boy.

Nkhotakota Police spokesperson Kaitano Lubrino said the court heard that Saidi Mussa of Nkhotakota on July 9, this year coaxed the boy into his house at Chimnandi Village where he sodomized him and later gave the victim K5.00 to buy sweets. The state prosecutor told the court that the matter was unearthed after his parents spotted semen on the back of his short and later reported the matter to Nkhotakota police station where the suspect was arrested.

First Grade Magistrate Fred Juma Chilowetsa found him guilty of indecent assault. He said the offence committed was serious and ordered jailed for 50 months with hard labour without an option of fine.  This was after the convict had tried to say he was ignorant of the law.

In Dowa, a 20-year-old youth has been arrested for allegedly defiling his four year-old niece. Police spokesperson Richard Kaponda told Malawi News Agency the suspect, Dzenjelakwana Frankson, who was arrested on Wednesday July 25 at his home  Village of Kambiya T/A Mkukula, Dowa gave the little one [name withheld] K50 to buy her silence.

“He called the girl to his house when she was playing with her friends. Fearing her friends would let the cat out of the bag, Frankson gave them [the victim’s friends] some money to buy sweets leaving him all alone with the helpless girl,” said Kaponda.

Kaponda further said that the suspect told the girl the money given to her was meant to buy soap. “The victim’s grandmother wondered where her grandchild got the soap and upon quizzing her, she revealed her ordeal,” said Kaponda adding that medical personnel at Dowa District Hospital confirmed penetration and that the girl had bruises and semen in her private parts.

Frankson is expected to appear before the Dowa Magistrate Court soon to answer the charge of defilement which is contrary to Section 138 of the penal code and attracts a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

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©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment.

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