The alleged offences were committed between March and June last year. When the matter came up for beginning of trial yesterday before Magistrate Faides Hamaundu, the pupils testified that Munyinya allegedly used to give them K2 to buy popcorn.

The children told the court that after giving them money, the suspect would ask them to visit him at his home where he allegedly defiled them. The children told the court that while at his house, Munyinya allegedly covered their mouths with a cloth while he defiled them. The minors also narrated that the suspect told them that they risked dying in their sleep if they told anyone about the act.

The nine-year-old girl’s grandmother said she only discovered that her granddaughter was defiled after inspecting her genitals after she had gone missing for hours. “I was about to report the child as missing at a local police post when news came to me that my granddaughter was taken to the University Teaching Hospital for a check-up by her teachers,” the woman said.

She said the child confessed to her that Munyinya had allegedly defiled her while her mouth was covered with a cloth. The matter was adjourned to Tuesday next week for continued trial. In another matter, a pastor has pleaded not guilty to sodomising and assaulting a woman. In the first count, 28-year-old Francis Mukuwa is charged with committing unnatural offences.

On December 1 last year and January 2 this year, Mukuwa allegedly had unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman against the order of nature. In the second count, Mukuwa is charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm in which it is alleged that he assaulted a woman on January 2. When the matter came up yesterday, Mukuwa denied the charge.The matter will resume on February