Teacher jailed for raping Standard 8 pupil

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Rape Malawi

A circuit magistrate court sitting in Mwansambo in Nkhotakota has sentenced a primary school teacher aged 34 to 10 years in prison for raping and impregnating a 16-year-old Standard 8 pupil.

The court heard that, between the months of August-December, 2016 at Kasangazi primary school in Nkhotakota district, the teacher Lawrence Matewere sexually abused the girl who is under the age of 18.

Police prosecutor Mcrhino Lungu of Nkhotakota police told the court that Matewere convinced the girl to go to his house for studies since the house had electricity.

Matewere sexually abused the girl on five different occasions and she later got pregnant.

When Matewere learnt that the girl had got pregnant, he gave her K3, 000 to terminate the pregnancy but the girl narrated the matter to her parents who swiftly reported the matter to police.

When passing the sentence in court, magistrate Fred Jumma Chilowetsa said offences of defilement are on the increase in the district as well as in the country.

Chilowetsa said Matewere being a teacher should have protected the girl but instead he was at the forefront traumatising the girl something that will make many girls to lose trust in their own teachers.

He then sentenced Matewere to 10 years in prison.

Lawrence Matewere, 34, hails from Mbalame village in the area of Senior Chief Mwambo in Zomba district.