A Chitungwiza man, Abraham Soko (19), will perform 245 hours of community service after pleading guilty to raping and impregnating his 13-year-old girlfriend.
The Seke resident received a 12-month prison sentence, with six months suspended on condition of good behaviour. The remaining six months were commuted to community service.
The court heard that Soko had initiated a relationship with the under-age victim before engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse with the minor sometime last year. Months later, the girl discovered she was pregnant.
This led to her mother reporting the matter to the police, resulting in Soko’s arrest on rape charges. Tragically, the girl suffered a miscarriage due to the stress caused by Soko abandoning her after she revealed her pregnancy.
Appearing before the court, Soko offered a unique defence. He claimed that he was unaware of the legal implications of their sexual encounters with a young girl, asserting that his girlfriend had been the one initiating the sexual activity.
“I was not aware of the law when we engaged in sexual intercourse, she was the one who always initiated the sex,” Soko stated in his defence. “I fell for her demands and committed the offence out of ignorance,” he added.
The State’s case detailed how Soko had proposed a romantic relationship to the victim before the sexual encounters took place. The unprotected nature of the sexual acts, coupled with the subsequent pregnancy and Soko’s subsequent abandonment of the minor girl who is below the age of consent, formed the basis of the statutory rape charge.
