AMAN of Ndola will spend the next 15 years in jail for touching breasts of an 11-year-old girl. Ndola High Court judge Derrick Mulenga sentenced Lombani Kaonga, 35, to 15 years after the Ndola Magistrate’s Court convicted him of an indecent assault offence. In June last year, when the girl was returning home around 09:00 hours from school, where she had gone to do some manual work, Kaonga forcefully grabbed the juvenile and took her to an unfinished house.

The court heard that the victim did not know what Kaonga wanted from her because he was a stranger. According to prosecution evidence, Kaonga desired to be with the child but she refused. It was heard that the accused placed a K20 into the girl’s hands, as an inducement to allow him to touch and kiss her, an offer she denied. But Kaonga only managed to touch her breasts without her consent.

He was apprehended and reported to the police. The Ndola Magistrate’s Court convicted and sent him to the High Court for sentencing. And when the matter came up in the Ndola High Court, Kaonga pleaded for leniency because he is the breadwinner of his family. But judge Mulenga said although he took into consideration the mitigation, the offence Kaonga committed is grave.

“Despite the many years the court has been imposing as custodial sentence on this charge, the offences are not reducing, but instead they have continued to increase. Since you (Kaonga) are a first offender, I will give you 15 years imprisonment with hard labour,” he said.