In a stranger than fiction case, a married woman asked a Magistrates Court to withdraw two counts of rape cases against a man who raped her, as she falls in love with him.
A 22-year-old woman identified as Talent Zvenyika, from the Featherstone area of Zimbabwe, has last week approached Chivhu Magistrates Court in the country to withdraw two counts of rape against a man, William Chiocha who raped her on two occasions, claiming that they were now in love with each other.
According to a report by Tell Zim, 38-year-old Chiocha was set free after Magistrate Fadzai Mutombeni withdrew the case after the plea.
Zvenyika claimed that after the rape incidences, she had fallen in love with the alleged defiler as they had enjoyed consensual sexual intercourse on several other occasions and they had asked each other for forgiveness.
It was gathered that Chiocha arrived at Zvenyika’s homestead with his young brothers around 15:00 hrs and proposed love to her but she rejected saying she was married.
Chiocha later returned later on the same day and found the complainant asleep with the door not locked as her husband, Billa Luckmore Gijima, had not yet returned from a football match. He began to pester the complaint again on his love proposal before going to her bed where he allegedly raped her once.
On another day, Chiocha once again approached Zvenyika around 19:00 hrs in her kitchen hut where she was preparing supper while her husband was at a beer drink.
He then grabbed a screaming Zvenyika by the shoulders and pulled her to the back of the kitchen door and r*ped her.
The complainant waited till early September 2016, when she divulged the rape ordeals to her husband after realising that her husband’s friend, Ozias Dzaramba had not told him as she had asked him to.
On September, 16 2016, Gijima reported the case at Charter Police Base.
“I am not the one who reported the case to the police. Although I did not consent on the first and second times, we later on indulged in consensual s*xual intercourse on several other instances after we asked each other for forgiveness for previous cases. We are now in love and therefore the case can be withdrawn,” Zvenyika told the court.
Nicholas Mabvongodze stood for the State. (Tori.Ng)
