High Court Overturns Victoria Falls Woman’s 15-Year Sentence for Raping Mentally-Challenged Man
A Victoria Falls woman who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for raping a mentally-challenged man has had her sentence reduced by the High Court after it was found that the trial magistrate used the wrong law.
Sitheni Masina had appealed both her conviction and sentence, arguing that the charges were based on an outdated legal provision that no longer applied by the time her case was decided.
Justice Munamato Mutevedzi agreed, saying the magistrate had wrongly applied a law that only came into effect after the alleged crimes were committed.
Masina was initially found guilty of two counts of aggravated indecent assault and slapped with a mandatory 15-year jail term. But Justice Mutevedzi noted that the new law which introduced mandatory minimum sentences for rape and aggravated indecent assault, only came into force on 14 July 2023, while Masina’s offences occurred between 1 January and 9 June 2023.
“Both of the counts with which the appellant was convicted occurred between 1 January 2023 and 9 June 2023. Needless to state, that was before the coming into operation of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Amendment Act No. 10/23 (“the Amendment Act”) on 14 July 2023. The Amendment has no retrospective effect. That approach has been adopted by our courts several times,” he noted.
The judge said Masina had a valid point when she argued that the court should not have used the newer, harsher law to sentence her.
“The appellant, therefore, correctly submitted in her heads of argument that the court a quo applied the wrong law. It could not have sentenced the appellant using a law that came into operation after the commission of the offence. The mandatory penalties for rape and aggravated indecent assault which were introduced by the amendment to section 65(2) of the Code do not in this instance. The ground of appeal has merit and is therefore upheld. Sentencing is ordinarily the discretion of the trial court. An appellate court can only interfere with a sentence where an appellant clearly demonstrates that such a sentence is afflicted by a misdirection. In this case, before the amendment, offenders convicted of aggravated indecent assaults were, in appropriate cases, entitled to discounts from their gross penalties depending on the mitigatory factors raised in any particular case.”
He pointed out that, before the legal amendment, judges had more flexibility to adjust sentences depending on each case’s circumstances — especially for first-time offenders.
In light of this, the judge reduced Masina’s sentence to seven years in jail, with three years suspended for five years on condition she does not commit another sexual offence in that period.
Justice Mutevedzi also took into account that Masina is a first-time offender and a mother of three minor children, saying these factors forced the court to interfere with the original sentence.
However, her conviction still stands. The time Masina has already served will count towards her new sentence.
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The post High Court Overturns Victoria Falls Woman’s 15-Year Sentence for Raping Mentally-Challenged Man appeared first on iHarare News.
