Panafrican News Agency, 15 December 1997

Tanzanian Gets Three Year Sentence For Defilement

LUSAKA, Zambia (PANA) - A court in Lusaka sentenced Monday Adamu Abdul, 52, a Tanzanian man, to three years imprisonment with six strokes of the cane for defiling his eight year old niece.

Passing the sentence, magistrate Richard Choonga said that sexual offences were on the increase and it was the onus of the court to impose sentences which would deter potential offenders. He said people like Abdul did not deserve leniency.

Choonga noted that the victim, a grade one pupil, had contracted syphilis as a result of the assault.

The court was told that Abdul used to take the little girl to school along with his daughter and pick them up from school in the afternoon.

Choonga said that there was overwhelming evidence before the court that Abdul defiled the girl four times, three times in his house and once amidst shrubs.