By KAFULA MUTALE –
A THIRTY-FIVE-YEAR-OLD bus driver of Ndola’s Northrise township has been convicted of defiling a 12-year-old girl he had offered a lift.
Dominic Chipango is believed to have defiled the minor on a bus he was driving after offering her a lift on February 12 this year.
The victim narrated before the magistrate’s court that she was given a lift by Chipango to the station where her grandmother sold maize but he later told her to bend forward as he undressed her.
She said during the act, she was in a lot of pain and when Chipango was done, he gave her K2 for transport, a biscuit, a drink and an additional K17 for her silence.
The minor said she reported the ordeal to her grandmother who checked her private parts and discovered that she had been defiled.
The girl said that although she did not know the accused personally, she could identify him and two days later Chipango was arrested.
Chipango denied the charge, saying the victim was with her brother when he picked them up and that he dropped them at the station.
“I was surprised that I was being accused of such allegations when I dropped the children before I parked the vehicle and went home,” he said.
A medical examination from Authur Davidson Children’s Hospital (ADH) found that the girl had no hymen and had a foul discharge caused by a sexually transmitted disease (STI) contracted two weeks prior to the examination.
Considering the report showing when the STI was contracted, it was transmitted by another man. However, magistrate Harrison Mbuzi noted the fact that whether the disease was not transmitted by the accused person, the girl was under-age when he defiled her.
“According to the foregoing evidence, I noted an inconsistency in a mix-up of the date of the incident by the victim’s mother. However, from evidence from the victim, the victim’s birth record and other witnesses, the court has found Chipango guilty as charged,” he said.
Magistrate Mbuzi committed the case to the High Court for sentencing. The offence attracts a sentence of a minimum of 15 years and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.