By MUSONDA MANGILASHI and DELPHINE ZULU –
THE woman you raped was old enough to be your mother and it does not make sense, said a Kitwe High Court judge when sending a 22-year-old Kalulushi man to jail for raping a 55-year-old woman.
High Court Judge-in-Charge Isaac Chali sentenced John Mwansa to 35 years imprisonment with hard labour for raping a woman old enough to be his mother on June 21, 2016.
The incident happened in the evening when the victim was on her way to buy vegetables at the market.
Mr Justice Chali said that he upheld the conviction by the lower court and sentenced him accordingly.
Mwansa admitted the offence and told the lower court that he committed the offence under the influence of alcohol.
But in his sentence, Justice Chali dismissed the fact that Mwansa was drunk at the time he committed the offence.
He said the convict was in his right senses because he persuaded the victim who was going to buy vegetables for a long time, which indicated that he was not drunk.
The judge said that it was sad that he had to touch a woman who was old enough to be his mother.
“You claim to have been drunk but had the sense to persuade her for a long time she was going to buy vegetables, which indicates that you were not drunk. At your age the person you raped was old enough to be your mother and it doesn’t not make sense to rape someone old enough to be your mother,” Justice Chali said.
He said that Mwansa deserved a harsh sentence because of his behaviour.
The judge further said he was sending Mwansa to jail to send a warning to would-be offenders.
Meanwhile, the National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) says it might not call the pathologist to testify in a case where Lusaka lawyer Keith Mukata and his lover are facing a murder charge.
NPA deputy chief State advocate Mariah Bar Matandala told the court yesterday that the prosecution was considering doing away with the testimony of the next witness, the pathologist, because he was out of the country and was only coming back in November this year.
“Unfortunately we are unable to proceed today as earlier indicated. Calling other witnesses before the pathologist as lined up might disturb the flow, we are trying to see if we could do without him,” she said.
This is a matter where Mukata and his lover Charmaine Musonda have pleaded not guilty to a murder charge before High Court Judge Susan Wanjelani.
Mukata and Musonda are alleged to have killed a security guard, Namakambwa Kalilakwenda, at the former’s law firm, AKM Legal Practitioners, on May 6 this year.
Defence lawyer Eric Silwamba did not object and asked the NPA to use the provisions of Section 191 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which is instructive in the circumstance.
The matter has been adjourned to Thursday this week.