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British man faces child molestation charges
By Torby
Chimhashu
A RETIRED
British surgeon based in Harare, Dr JF Burnett, has appeared before
a Zimbabwean magistrate charged with sexually abusing his stepdaughter’s
five-year-old child.
But in his first interview, DJ Burnett of 41b Suffolk Road, Strathaven, Harare, has accused his ex-wife’s children of trying to “destroy” him.
In an interview Monday, Burnett said admitted he appeared in court facing charges of sexually abusing his grand daughter, but claimed “natural justice prevailed because the case fell on its face”.
“It is absolutely true that I was in court. What is more important is that I am free because there is no case against me. It’s all fabrication,” Burnett told New Zimbabwe.com.
But his stepdaughter, whose daughter Burnett was accused of having sexually molested, claims the Brit might have bribed his way out of a possible prison sentence.
Burnett next appears in court on July 12.
He said his problems were stemming from a long running quarrel with his stepchildren who are baying for his blood following the death of their mother in January this year.
“Ha-ha! Those? Don’t listen to what they have told you. If you write anything that they have told you, I will sue you off your socks,” an animated Burnett said.
However, Ellen, his stepdaughter who had reported that Burnett had sexually abused her daughter, on Friday accused the courts and the police of having been bribed.
In a telephone interview, she said Burnett had remained free because of his “connections”.
Asked to substantiate her claim, she said she would phone back this reporter “after 30 minutes”.
When phoned Saturday late afternoon and reminded that she had promised to substantiate her claims against Burnett, Ellen begged for more time.
She said: “I will phone you on Monday. Give me time.”
She has not done so.
Last week, a man claiming to be Ellen’s brother sent an e-mail to New Zimbabwe.com accusing the courts of having committed an injustice by letting Burnett out on bail.
He said in the e-mail: “After hearing the five year old's testimony, the court still saw it fit to leave Dr Burnett go free and was asked to come back on the 12th July. Can someone expose this injustice, is this what our country has come to that if you have money you can abuse our children and get away with it in the name of mourning?”
Ellen’s brother said Burnett had been married to their mother for 15 years until she died on January 10 this year.
“We buried our mother on the January 12, and two days later our step dad started bringing young prostitutes home sleeping with them on the bed our mother died on without even changing the linen,” he said.
“He refused us to have a memorial (nyaradzo) at home, he called Avondale police to come and chase the people who were coming for the memorial from home.
“Upon confronting him, he chased my sister Ellen, the mother of the abused child, from home and since then he has been reporting different cases at Avondale police station and Mbare police station so that Ellen can drop the charges against him for abusing her little girl.
“In our culture,
when someone dies you give their belongings to their relatives. Dr Burnett
has gone to Avondale police station to report that Ellen stole my mother's
jewellery which was given away at the nyaradzo amongst other things.”
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