The Senior Resident Magistrate Court sitting in Mangochi has acquitted a 36-year-old primary school teacher, Enock Lucius, who was accused of having sexual intercourse with a female child.
Lucius was in a relationship with a girl that he was planning to marry.
During the relationship, she got pregnant but he discovered that she had another boyfriend was claimed to be responsible for the pregnancy.
Lucius then decided to put a stop to the wedding preparations. After that, a local Non-Governmental Organization got involved and reported the matter to the police.
When he first appeared in Court, Lucius was unrepresented.
He cross-examined two State witnesses on his own and after the hearing, Senior Legal Aid Advocate Upile Mapata who was present in Court, approached the accused and told him about services that Legal Aid Bureau offers and how he could be assisted.
The wife of Lucius registered the case with the Bureau and the matter was assigned to Counsel Upile Mapata.
Counsel then recalled the mother of the victim to be re-cross-examined on the issue of the age of the victim.
During cross-examination, the mother of the victim first said her daughter who was a firstborn was born in 2007 but later on said her second child was born in 2005.
The mother failed to bring to Court a health passport or birth certificate to prove the age of the child.
After all State witnesses were paraded, the accused was found with a case to answer and was called upon to enter his defence.
In defence, the accused told the Court that the victim told him that she was 18 years old and that she had dropped out of school.
At the police, it was discovered that her health passport showed that she was 18 and her former head teacher also testified that 2 years before dropping out of school she was 16 years old.
In his judgment, Senior Resident Magistrate Muhammad Chande pointed out that it was the duty of the State to prove every element of a charge and in that case, the age of the victim was not proved beyond reasonable doubt.
The Court went on to say the contradicting evidence on the age of the victim created doubt which was to be resolved in favour of the accused.
The Court then pronounced the acquittal of Enock Lucius who had stayed in custody for 11 months after bail was denied.
