A 24 year old man on Thursday asked Ntchisi Magistrate Court to spare him from a custodial sentence but rather impose a community service on him because the hemp that he smoked to commit the defilement case was bought from the girl’s father.

Lazaro Dzuwa, committed the offense on 22 February 2016, in Kamphambale village where he found a girl at the borehole and enticed her to accompany him to his dimba garden, where he defiled her and later gave the girl two cobs of maize and sugarcane.

Dzuwa who pleaded guilty to the offence, asked the Magistrate to be lenient as he did not intend to defile the girl but said it was due to the influence of the hemp that he smoked.

During mitigation, Dzuwa asked the magistrate to impose a community service sentence so that he could care for his old mother and his sisters. He also said the court should consider him because the hemp that prompted him to defile the girl was bought from the girl’s father.

“Am sorry for the offence I committed. I want this court not to send me to prison. I should be given a sentence that I can serve outside prison. You should understand that the hemp that I smoked to defile her was bought from her father,” said Dzuwa in court, making the people listening to the proceedings to burst into laughter.

Passing the judgement, Ntchisi First Grade Magistrate, Dorothy Kaluwa, said defilement was a serious case and deserved a stiffer punishment.

She said it was surprising that despite the court imposing many years of imprisonment to defilement offenders people were still continuing defiling girls in the communities.

She therefore sentenced Dzuwa to 13 years imprisonment with hard labour. Dzuwa hailed from Kamphambale village in Traditional Authority Chilooko in the Ntchisi.