FOR robbing his 14-year-old stepdaughter of her innocence by repeatedly defiling and impregnating her twice, a 39-year-old man of Lusaka is on the verge of being jailed for not less than 15 years for defilement. Lusaka Magistrate Ammie Masoja has convicted Tobias Chilimbo, a general worker of Munyeta village in Chongwe, of defilement and committed him to the High Court for sentencing. This is in a case Chilimbo was charged with defilement, an offence he denied committing.

Between January 2, 2014 and January 9, 2017, Chilimbo had unlawful carnal knowledge of a 14-year-old child. During trial, the victim, who is now 17, told Magistrate Masoja that she fell pregnant on two occasions and has two children after her stepfather repeatedly had sex with her. She explained that after giving birth to her first child, her stepfather continued having sex with her as if she was his wife. The juvenile said the abuse started in 2012 when she asked for money for books because she wanted to go to school. Chilimbo told her that if she wanted to go to school, she should do everything he wants. She said he then called her to his bedroom and defiled her.

“When everyone left the house, I started sweeping. Chilimbo called me to his bedroom, he had a knife in his hands saying he will kill me. He undressed me and defiled me,” she said. The child said after he finished, he gave her K20 to buy school books. She said her stepfather told her that he would kill her and her siblings if she told anyone about the defilement.

The child said Chilimbo made it a habit to defile her every time her mother was not home until she fell pregnant in 2016. She said when she told him about the pregnancy, he asked her never to mention his name but another person named Peter. The victim said three months after giving birth, Chilimbo continued defiling her until she conceived again, a year and three months after her first child stopped breastfeeding. She said when she told her father about it, he gave her Panado and concoctions to drink to terminate the pregnancy but she never took the medication. The juvenile said while she was four months pregnant, she and her mother travelled to Lusaka to attend a funeral where her aunties queried her over the person responsible for her pregnancy.

She opened up and informed her aunties that Chilimbo had been defiling her and is responsible for her second pregnancy and father of her now three-year-old son. The matter was reported to police and Chilimbo was arrested. After several witnesses testified against Chilimbo, the court found him with a case to answer and put him on his defence. In defence, Chilimbo denied defiling the victim. Passing judgment on Friday, Magistrate Masoja said the prosecution had proved the case against Chilimbo beyond reasonable doubt. She also found that the mother of the victim knew that Chilimbo was having sex with the girl