A Bulawayo's Barbourfields man who filmed himself and his daughter using a cellphone has been charged with aggravated indecent assault, NOT rape as earlier reported.

The 51-year-old man was dragged to the dock two weeks ago for allegedly undressing his daughter (15), inserting his fingers and shooting pictures of her privates. The man did all this under the disguise that he was checking the girl's virginity and would insert herbs into the privates and smear them with natural oil.

Prosecutor Mr Malvern Nzombe told the court that the old man was in the habit of inserting his fingers into the girl's privates, saying he was checking whether they were big enough to be tied. The court heard that he smeared herbs claiming to be protecting his daughter from rapists. As if that was not enough, he went on to take pictures of the girl's nudity using his cellphone, alleging that it was a way of keeping RECORDS in the virginity testing exercise.

However, the man pleaded not guilty to the charged when he appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Miss Marilyn Mutshina. He was remanded in custody but appealed for bail arguing that he had a heart problem and would not cope in remand prison. Magistrate Mutshina advised him to write an affidavit to the Attorney General's office seeking bail.

It is the State's case that the man started the act in 2009 where he allegedly fondled the girl's privates on several occasions. Since then, the girl always kept the matter a secret until last month when she could not keep to herself what transpired on 9 August. She decided to spill the beans after her father had taken pictures of her nudity. The cellphone is being used as an exhibit in court.

Meanwhile, when the paper broke the story last month, it was erroneously reported that police said they were investigating the case of rape, when in actual fact police made it clear that according to their records, the man was arrested on charges of indecent assault. However, in an earlier interview, the girl had told reporters that her father had sexually abused her.




metro