By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –
A SHOPKEEPER of Chongwe District has been jailed 30 years with hard labour for sodomising a four-year-old boy.
Gilbert Mutale, 23, admitted sodomising the boy on July 30, 2015, but said he was instructed to do so by a witch doctor as a ritual for him to become rich.
Mutale, who readily admitted the charge, said he wanted to become rich and the witch doctor he consulted from Sesheke instructed him to have sex with a male child against the order of nature.
He said he was guided by the witch doctor to have sex with the boy and call him after days to inform him that he had successfully performed the ritual.
However, when he called the witch doctor to inform him about his “success”, his mobile phone was not reachable.
Mutale said his mother had given him the witch doctor’s phone number so that he could source some medicine.
Facts are that the mother of the boy complained to the Police that on July 30, 2015, she was at home with her two other children who were playing outside but noticed after a while that the boy was missing.
She searched for the boy and discovered that he was in Mutale’s house, but the convict gave an excuse that the child was asleep.
The mother insisted to go back home with her son and later, as she bathed him, she noticed some injuries on the anus where some blood was coming out.
The matter was reported to Chongwe Police who arrested Mutale after investigations.
Mutale voluntariy admitted to the charge.
The magistrate’s court found Mutale guilty at his own admission and committed him to the High Court for sentencing.
Lusaka High Court judge Betty Mung’omba said although she had considered that Mutale did not waste the court’s time by readily admitting to the charge, the offence he committed was serious and carries a mandatory sentence of 25 years.
Ms Justice Mung’omba said Mutale needed a lot of time away from society to reflect on his wrongdoing.
She sentenced him to 30 years in jail with hard labour effective from the day of his arrest.