2 men jailed 10 years for raping teenager
The Mzuzu Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court has sentenced two men to 10 years imprisonment for raping a 16-year-old girl.
The court heard that Yachema Ngwira, 20, and Symon Mhango, 27, raped the girl on the night of August 31 as she was on her way home from night dance sessions.
Mzuzu Police Station prosecutor Thandi Lungu told the court that the convicts tied the girl’s legs with ropes and took turns raping her.
The duo pleaded guilty, but asked for leniency on the basis that they were first offenders, married and sole breadwinners for their families. The two also said they had moulded bricks which could be destroyed by rains if they are jailed.
But senior resident magistrate Matthews Msiska dismissed their mitigation factors and handed the duo 10 years in jail.
He stated: “Considering aggravating factors that the accused used violence, defiled the girl without condoms and that such brutal incidents are becoming rampant across the country, I, therefore, sentence each of you to a 10 years jail term as such behaviour puts at risk lives of girls and women.”
Ngwira comes from Palango Village and Mhango from Mhango Village both in the area of Traditional Authority Mtwalo in Mzimba District.
