A MAN has been jailed for 20 years for sexually abusing and infecting his seven-year-old stepdaughter with HIV.
He carried out a series of sickening attacks on the girl while her mum WATCHED, and sometimes ENCOURAGED him, the Bulawayo Magistrates’ Court heard.
Magistrate Godwin Sengweni said the 50-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was an evil predator who had showed no remorse for his crimes.
The court was told that little girl’s mother, who died before the matter came to light, would also have faced charges.
Prosecuting, Mazhar Petkar said the man moved in with the girl and her mum in the middle-class Barham Green suburb in 2003.
For the next six years until 2009, the prosecutor said, the young girl was repeatedly raped – with no protection from her mother.
Following the woman’s death in 2008, the court heard, the girl’s stepfather told relatives he could not continue to live with her, prompting a family friend to adopt her.
After moving in with her new family, Petkar said, the girl “exhibited behaviour not consistent with her age”.
On more than one occasion, she grabbed the privates of workers at her new home, prompting her new guardians to quiz her over her behaviour.
Police were called in on April 7, 2009.
Before sentencing, the evil stepfather begged Sengweni for leniency saying prison conditions were “terrible”.
His pleas only served to infuriate the magistrate who handed out the maximum sentence for the crime of aggravated sexual assault.