By Court Reporter
A 36-year-old builder from Gutu has been jailed for an effective 40 years after being convicted of raping his biological daughter.
The Masvingo Regional Magistrates’ Court found the man guilty of two counts of rape. The abuse began in 2021, when the victim was 11 years old.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the girl’s mother had left for Botswana, leaving the child and her younger brother in the offender’s care.
The court heard that on the day the mother left, the man returned home in the evening and raped the child in her bedroom.
The second incident occurred on 25 December 2025. The offender arrived home intoxicated and attempted to rape the child in the dining room. When the girl’s stepmother tried to intervene, the man assaulted her with a wooden log. She fled the homestead for safety.
Left alone with the children, the man then raped his daughter and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.
The following day, the girl smuggled a note to her aunt. Written in Shona, it read:
“Vatete ndine nyaya yandinoda kuzokuudzai baba vasati vadzoka” — “Aunt, I have a matter I need to tell you before father returns.”
