A 12-YEAR-OLD Grade 8 pupil yesterday narrated in the Mongu Magistrate’s Court that a traffic police officer at Mongu Central Police Station allegedly defiled her on 10 occasions in his vehicle. This is a case in which Sishau Nyumbu is facing one count of defilement.

On unknown dates but between August 1 and December 31, 2018, Nyumbu allegedly had carnal knowledge of a child below the age of 16.
When the matter came up for trial, the girl said she first slept with Nyumbu in January 2018 after he forced himself on her in a bush near Old Shoprite in Mongu.

The girl said that day, Nyumbu allegedly grabbed her by the hand and forced her into his vehicle, before driving to a nearby bush. She said Nyumbu forcefully put her in his vehicle after she turned down his proposal to go with him. The girl said after she told Nyumbu to go to his wife instead of proposing love to her, he allegedly told her that she was a grown-up person who was his size.

“I told him that I was too young to be in a relationship after his several proposals, but he said young girls were better than old women. He further told me that I was better than his wife,” she said. The girl said after the first sexual encounter, Nyumbu continued to pick her from her home in Boma area.
She said on all the 10 occasions, Nyumbu used condoms and warned her not to tell anyone about it.

The juvenile told the court that she never told her mother for fear that she was going to be beaten. On January 2 this year she gathered some courage and told her mother about Nyumbu after she got tired of his advances. She said the following day, the mother took her to the hospital, where it was confirmed that an elderly person was defiling her.

In cross-examination by the defence counsel from Legal Aid Board, the girl was asked if she was defiled on all the 10 occasions. She said this was indeed so. Her mother told the court that Nyumbu admitted having sex with the girl and asked for forgiveness.

“The said Nyumbu’s relatives also offered to give me any amount of money so that I could drop the case but I refused. “As if that was not enough, Nyumbu also sent one of the office assistants at Mongu Central Police Station to come and convince me to drop the case, which I equally turned down,” she said.

She also alleged that Nyumbu used to give her daughter K50 each time he defiled her. The mother said the doctor who examined her daugher at Lewanika General Hospital found bruises on her private parts. Defence counsel Joe Mulafulafu asked the mother to state the correct age of her daughter as there was no birth record to prove her true age.

In response, the mother, who has five other children who are all boys, said there was no need for her to lie about her daughter’s age. She said she misplaced the girl’s birth records after she separated from her father. The matter will come up on February 13 for continued trial