Mzuzu man gets 10 years in jail for sexual assault on girl, 5
Senior Resident Magistrate Court in Mzuzu has sentenced a 40-year-old man to 10 years Imprisonment with Hard Labour (IHL) for defiling a five-year- old girl.
Police Prosecutor Sergeant Lyson Kachikondo told the court that Levi Mkandawire of Enguzgeni Village in the area of Traditional Authority Mtwalo in Mzimba District enticed the girl (name withheld) with K20 which he directed her to buy biscuits.
Soon after the girl returned from the market, the man forced her into his house where he defiled her.
Sergeant Kachikondo further told the court that the police arrested Mkandawire on 8th August, 2011 after receiving a complaint from the girl’s mother who noted that her child was looking miserable. He said after motherly questioning, the child narrated the whole scenario.
In mitigation, the convict asked the court for lenient sentence citing his ill health.
But Sergeant Kachikondo pleaded with the court for stiff penalty to deter would-be-offenders from committing similar crime.
He added that though he was a first offender, he was a threat to the society, hence the need for severe punishment.
Imposing 10 years jail sentence, Senior Resident Magistrate II, Kondwani Banda, said he was structuring the sentence in such a way as to recognise the escalation of Mkandawire’s offending.
He said this should serve as a warning to would-be-offenders.
