Salima man earns 14 years for defiling step-daughter

A 38-year-old man, Mabvuto Eliya, will spend the next 14 years in jail after the Salima First Grade Magistrate’s Court in central Malawi convicted him of raping his 12-year-old step-daughter.

The court heard that in April this year, Eliya, who was working as a security guard at Salima District Council, married the girl’s mother as his second wife.

Whenever the mother was away, Eliya would ask the girl to share the bed with him and later raped her.

Morgan Kabango, who prosecuted the case, told the court that the last time the convict wanted to sleep with the girl, she refused, a response that did not amuse him.

“When this happened, Eliya became furious and slapped the girl. When the girl began crying, he took advantage of the situation to defile her,” he said.

Kabango asked the court to mete out a stiff sentence on Eliya because the convict declared that he is HIV-positive, a condition that posed a big risk to the girl’s life.

The convict comes from Funsani Village, T/A Makwangwala in Malawi’s central district of Ntcheu.