CHURCH ELDER GETS 25 YEARS FOR DEFILEMENT
CHURCH ELDER GETS 25 YEARS FOR DEFILEMENT
A 25-year-old church elder of Petauke has been sentenced to 25 years imprisonment with hard labour for defiling a 12-year-old girl.
Ongolani Mwale was caught red-handed defiling a minor in the house she was sleeping in with her relatives in February last year.
During trial in the subordinate court, the victim’s father told the court that he was fast asleep in his house when his brother-in-law went to wake him up that he had caught Mwale in his house.
He said when he got to where his daughter was sleeping, he found Mwale had already been apprehended.
“I was told Ongolani Mwale was found sleeping with my daughter. I got him and took him to the village headmen and he [denied] having carnal knowledge of my daughter,” the father testified.
“The headman called female neighbourhood watch members, who also called Mwale’s mother and the victim’s mother and took the child behind the house to check if she had really been defiled.”
Though they found blood and semen on the victim’s private parts, Mwale insisted that he had not defiled the minor.
The father then took the daughter to Kalindabwalo General Hospital, where medical authorities confirmed that she had been defiled.
Following the testimony, the subordinate court convicted Mwale and committed him to the High Court for sentencing.
ZDM