Source: The Herald – Breaking news.
The seven were convicted when they appeared before Mutare regional magistrate Mrs Phathekile Msipa sitting at Nyanga Regional Magistrate Circuit Court from March 3 to 7. 
Nyore Madzianike-Senior Reporter
Seven men, including four who took turns to rape an eight-year-old girl in Nyanga, were sentenced to a combined 93 years behind bars.
The seven were convicted when they appeared before Mutare regional magistrate Mrs Phathekile Msipa sitting at Nyanga Regional Magistrate Circuit Court from March 3 to 7.
Webster Bhurangeti (20) of Tunguni Village under Chief Saunyama in Nyanga was jailed for 17 years after he was convicted of raping a Grade 3 girl.
Prosecutor Mr Last Goredema had it that sometime in April last year, Bhurangeti approached the girl while she was in her father’s garden.
Bhurangeti then started playing pornographic videos from his cellphone before inviting the girl to watch the same.
Later on, Bhurangeti asked the girl if she was able to perform the same acts from the pornographic movies.
The court heard that the girl told him that she was too young to perform the same acts, prompting Bhurangeti to forcibly grab her by the hand and drag her to a secluded nearby bush out of the garden.
He then raped her.
Thereafter, Bhurangeti started waiting for the girl along her way home from school and raped her on several days.
During the same month, Justice Nyakuchena (29) from the same village, got word that Webster Bhurangeti was raping the girl each time he saw her on her way home from school.
One day, at around midday, Nyakuchena approached the girl while she was in her father’s garden and asked to have sex with her.
She refused, the court heard.
Armed with information that she had been raped by Bhurangeti, Nyakuchena threatened to relay the word to her father in the event that she continues turning down his sexual advances.
Nyakuchena went on to grab and take her to a secluded nearby bush where he raped her.
He continued to sexually abuse the girl on several separate occasions whilst on her way from school until the day he was arrested and taken to court where he was subsequently convicted.
Nyakuchena was sentenced to 20 years behind bars before the court conditionally set aside five years.
He will serve 15 years behind bars.
As if that was not enough, a 16-year-old boy was spared a jail term after the court wholly suspended his sentence after being convicted of sexually abusing the same girl.
The teenager, whose name has been withheld for legal reasons, was slapped with a wholly suspended five-year jail on condition that he does not commit a similar offence within the next five years.
It was the State’s case that sometime in September last year at around midday the teenager met the girl walking home from school and asked for sexual favours.
She refused.
He then blackmailed her by threatening to tell her father about her case with Bhurangeti, Justice Nyakuchena and Wilfred Bhurangeti.
Out of fear, the girl let the teenager rape her.
The matter came to light November 3, 2024 at around 5pm when the girl’s father observed that her daughter was always returning home from school late and decided to quiz her.
It was when she revealed the sexual abuses leading to the quartet’s arrest.
They were separately charged when they appeared before Mutare Regional Magistrate Mrs Msipa.
A 46-year-old man, whose name has been withheld to protect the name of the victim, was also jailed for 20 years for raping and impregnating his 14-year-old daughter.
The man, from Mutigwa Village under Chief Saunyama, would take advantage of his wife’s absence and rape his daughter sometime last year.
Toddy Tangwena (25) and Praise Kwecha (24) of Maphosa Village, Chief Hata, Nyanga were each jailed for 18 years when they appeared in court charged with raping a 14-year-old girl.
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