A MASTER guide at a Seventh Day Adventist church has been committed to the High Court for sentencing after a magistrate found him guilty of indecently assaulting a 12-year-old girl.
Collins Chikwangala was found guilty of tying the victim before he inserted an object in her private part while he covered her face.
While he was found guilty of indecent assault, a magistrate acquitted him of another charge of defilement because of insufficient evidence.
Magistrate Kawama Mwamfuli said in her judgment passed yesterday that the prosecution had proved the indecent case against the accused beyond all reasonable doubt.
“It has been proven that the accused person unlawfully and indecently assaulted the prosecutrix he tied her hands and her face before proceeding to remove her pant and inserted something painful in her vagina,” she said.
This is in a case Chikwangala was facing two counts of indecent assault and defilement.
Allegations were that between April 1, and 30, 2023, Chikwangala had unlawful carnal knowledge of a child under the age of 16 year, pseudonym Nana.
Facts are that during the said period, Nana was at church with her younger siblings and that her mother was with her choir mates at a church event away from the victim.
Chikwangala is reported to have followed Nana and told her that her mother had left with him a parcel which he needed to give.
The child then followed the accused to his house where he stays at his father’s house.
At the house, the accused tied the child’s hands and allegedly forced himself on her and warned that should she tell anyone about it, he would not only kill her but her entire family.
But Nana later informed her mother about the incident.
And in his defence, Chikwangala denied the allegations and that on Saturdays, he is usually busy with the work of God during Sabbath.
“The dates that are mentioned, the child emphasized that it happened on the Sabbath. Sabbaths are holy, I only do things that pertain to God. I am a leader of the youths, and being a leader of the youths, your honour, I cannot use my Sabbath to defile any child, my Sabbaths are always occupied, am always busy with the work of the lord”.
However, the magistrate said the defence was an afterthought.
She further ruled that the accused’s defence that he was falsely implicated because he had differences with the victim’s mother cannot hold water.
But the court acquitted him of defilement because the prosecution failed to prove the occurrence of unlawful non- consensual sexual intercourse.
“But they have proven that there was an act of an indecent assault on the afternoon in question by the accused person,” the magistrate said.
Indecent assault attracts up to 15 years imprisonment.
