Centre for Youth and Children Affair has demanded authorities to swiftly review the child assault case in Ntcheu where Senior Resident Magistrate Joshua Nkhondo acquitted Vincent Dzimadzi, a man seen in a video clip assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Gochi Village.
Dzimadzi was not found guilty of act intended to cause grievous harm.
In an interview with Malawi24, Executive Director for the organization Desmond Nyuma Mhango said the decisions of the lower courts at Magistrate Court are supposed to go for review at the High Court so that the case can be heard again by way of appeal to High Court by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Mhango said they have written appeal letter over the case.
“We believe there were weaknesses or errors in the handling of the matter and we are therefore demanding a re-hearing of the case.
“We want to see absolute respect, promotion and protection of the rights of the children through acceptable justice for the child,” he explained.
He went on to say that they want a full hearing of the case and not the throwing away of the case as per current court ruling.
He also said that they are contributing to a Constitutional Court case on age of consent on sexual offences between or involving a boy child and a girl child.
He noted that under the current law, only the boy child can be faulted by the law when adolescents have consensual sex.
“We want to Court to consider facts around adolescence or adolescent growth and development and realizing the fact that it is prejudice to assume that all boys are equally more powerful than all girls regardless the circumstances,” he said.
He added that evidence is available of girls who ignite sexual relationship with boys up to the point of giving money to the boy.
He then said they are currently monitoring delivery of child justice at all levels of case management and the information is helping to evidently inform policy decision makers on matters of child justice.
