Crimes and Court Correspondent<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A 13-year-old boy from Plumtree, Matabeleland South, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for aggravated indecent assault, has been released on bail from Bulawayo Prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We are coming from Bulawayo Prison, and the boy is now with his mother and has gone home,” said Stanley Chinyanganya, the boy’s lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The boy’s mother expressed her concerns, saying,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“He is not okay; he is seriously traumatized. When we took him yesterday, he cried throughout. He doesn’t want anything, and when relatives try to speak to him on the phone, he cries.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She added that her son even pleaded for the clothes he was wearing to be burned. “I am taking him to a social worker,” she said, expressing fears that her son may be mentally disturbed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the pre-sentencing inquiry, the minor stated that he saw inappropriate material on a peer’s phone, leading him to commit the offense. The Magistrate stated that the penalty provision for aggravated indecent assault carries a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years, with no exceptions given to juveniles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“What makes this offence aggravating is the age of the victim. If the victim is a child, that factor alone places the offence in the category of aggravated circumstances, requiring a sentence of no less than 15 years,” read the court papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The boy’s lawyer has filed an application for a review at the High Court and is awaiting a hearing date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zim GBC News\u00a92024<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Crimes and Court Correspondent A 13-year-old boy from Plumtree, Matabeleland South, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for aggravated indecent assault, has been released on bail from Bulawayo… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-and-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3873,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3871\/revisions\/3873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}