HIV-positive man rapes daughter and is sentenced to 20 years in prison

A magistrate in Harare yesterday sentenced a Greendale man to an effective 20-year prison term for sexually abusing his 18-year-old daughter despite knowing that he was HIV positive.

Judge Donald Ndirowei sentenced the man after prosecutor Shambadzeni Fungura gave evidence that the man went to Epworth on March 2 this year and told his sister, who was staying with their daughter, that he wanted to take her home.

Fungura told the court that the man and his daughter boarded a commuter bus and got off near Coronation Avenue in Greendale on the Harare-Mutare Highway, where he touched her private parts.

Later they went to his friend’s house, where he drank whiskey before going home with his daughter.

Fungura also told the court that the man had told his daughter in his house that he wanted to be intimate with her, but she had refused.

She said the daughter noticed her father’s inappropriate behavior and recorded the conversation on her cell phone.

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The court also heard that the father did not cope well with his daughter’s rejection and first attacked her and then raped her once.

In sentencing the man, Ndirowei praised the daughter’s stepmother, who reported the case to the police after the girl sent her the recording.

He described the act as cruel and added that the man deserved punishment for the crime because he had caused emotional harm to the teenager.

“The victim was so badly psychologically injured by her father that she even considered suicide. She only changed her mind after she received therapy at the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and her stepmother was able to convince her to attend the sessions,” said Ndirowei.

He said the man must be “crucified” for his crime because the medical report presented during the trial showed that he raped his daughter despite knowing he was HIV positive.

“During the sentencing hearing, it was revealed that the perpetrator was HIV positive and aware of his status. Fortunately, the victim received post-exposure prophylaxis (treatment) within 72 hours because she came forward early and the virus test was negative,” he said.

Ndirowei sentenced the man to a prospective term of 20 years in prison, despite the girl’s request that her father be sentenced to life imprisonment.