The Luangwa district magistrate circuit court sitting in Rufunsa district has granted bail to White Zulu, the 93 years old man who is alleged to have defiled his three-year-old granddaughter.
Magistrate Allan Kangwa granted bail to Mr. Zulu after his legal aid lawyer, Douglas Njolomba who is representing him in the case of defiling a three-year-old girl appealed to the court for time to study the case after the second witness Margret Phiri, the mother to the child and the arresting officer constable Raphael Bwingi gave their evidence.
The mother of the child told the court that on 10th April, 2022 around 18:00 hours she left her two daughters aged two and three in custody of their grandfather Mr Zulu and went to draw water but when she came back, she found her three-year-old daughter crying while sleeping in a blanket with her grandfather.
When she asked the father in-law Mr Zulu, why the child was crying, he told her that maybe some stick had pricked her private part.
In cross examination, Legal Aid Lawyer, Douglas Njolomba asked the complaint Magret Phiri from her own analysis if White Zulu could have the energy to have carnal knowledge with any woman and she answered that he can’t.
The third witness, Constable Rapheal Bwingi in his evidence, told the court that on 11th April, 2022, he received a report from Magret Phiri aged 24 that her three-year-old daughter had been defiled by White Zulu aged 93.
Constable Bwingi issued two medical reports which the complainant took to Mpanshya St. Luke’s Mission Hospital and when she came back from the Hospital, the medical reports were signed by a doctor and they showed that there was penetration.
Upon receiving the medical report, he went to arrest Mr Zulu and handed him to Luangwa Police Station for further investigations.
In cross examining, Constable Bwingi, the Lawyer asked how the matter was reported and Constable Bwingi told the Court that on the 11th April, Magret came to report the case of defilement at Mpanshya police post.
In finding out what happened, Magret Phiri told him that on the 10th April, 2022 she left her daughters aged two and three in custody of their Grandfather White Zulu at around 18:00 hours when she went to draw water from a borehole.
She later said that when she came back from the borehole, her three-year-old daughter ran to her crying and it was at this point when the legal aid lawyer asked for adjournment saying they were conflicting statements from the two witnesses, the mother and the Police officer.
Magistrate Kangwa adjourned the case to 11th July, 2022 for continued trial and later granted White Zulu bail in his own recognition as he was not a threat.
