12 yrs IHL for defiling, impregnating step daughter

The Blantyre Resident Magistrates’ court on Friday sentenced a 27 year old man to 12 years imprisonment with hard labour for defiling and impregnating his 13 year old step daughter.
The court heard that during the month of June 2015, the convict, Harry Sambakudwe repeatedly defiled the girl while his wife was in the village in Chiradzulu.
It further heard that in September, Sambakudwe’s wife discovered that her daughter was pregnant, and upon interrogation, she confessed that her husband was responsible.

Sambakudwe is said to have accepted responsibility, saying he wanted to test his fertility because he had spent two years with his wife but had no child together.
Sambakudwe was later arrested after his wife reported him to police.
Passing the sentence, Senior Resident Magistrate Kondwani Mandala bemoaned the increase in defilement and rape cases in the country.
Mandala said the stiff punishment was to deter would be offenders.
Sambakudwe hails from Kankhomba Village in the area of Traditional Authority Bvumbwe in Thyolo.