A UNIFORMED female police officer was left for dead following a sickening sex attack by two men at knifepoint, a court heard.
The officer was grabbed by her throat and dragged into the woods from a bus stop on Seppe Road in Chitungwiza just after 6PM on July 31.
Prosecutors say Joe Sikhonyana Mpofu, 29, and accomplice Clive Zindoga, whose age is unknown, took turns to rape the officer before robbing her of her mobile phone and US$1.
On Monday, Mpofu appeared before Harare magistrate Anita Tshuma charged with rape. Zindoga is still on the run, said prosecutor Tungamirai Chakurira.
The officer had just finished work for the day and was hitch-hiking for a lift to her home in Epworth when she was allegedly confronted by the two men.
They threatened her with a knife and dragged her to a secluded spot in Graniteside. The pair forcibly stripped her of her uniform and then took turns to rape her until she fell unconscious.
It is alleged they made off with her Nokia 1110 and a dollar bill.
When she came back to life, the pair had disappeared into the darkness. She reported the attack at Braeside police station and the investigation was stalled until investigators got a lucky break when they tracked Mpofu through the mobile phone with help from the officer’s phone company.
Mpofu was remanded in custody to September 14.
The incident is the second reported sex attack on a police officer in the same area.
Also appearing before magistrate Tshuma on Monday were two men who are said to be part of a gang of four rapists who attacked another officer on October 16 last year.
Brian Bishau, 42, and Knowledge Kudejira, 18, are charged with robbery and rape. Their two alleged accomplices, whose names were not revealed in court, are still at large.
Prosecutors say just before 5AM on October 16 last year, the four men stalked the female cop after she alighted from a vehicle near the Coca-Cola plant near the Graniteside quarry.
It is alleged the quartet grabbed the officer and demanded all her possessions. One of the gang members reportedly grabbed her by the neck and chocked her until she lost her voice.
The quartet pulled a cloth over the officer’s head, lifted her up and carried her for about 50m to a wooded area.
They took turns to rape her before making off with her mobile phone and US$1,50.
After a 10-month investigation, officers got a breakthrough last week after working with a mobile phone company to track the SIM card which Bishau was still using, say prosecutors.
Bishau and Kudejira were also remanded in custody to September 14.