A 45-YEAR-OLD Beatrice woman has been slapped with a 16 years jail term for raping her three sons for a month in April last year.

Chitungwiza regional magistrate Noel Mupeiwa convicted the woman after a full trial.

Reports indicate that she was facing three counts of rape.

Mupeiwa noted that the woman was mentally stable and castigated her behaviour that eventually led her sons to become sexually active and abused a neighbour’s daughter.

Prosecuting Trinity Mandebvu proved that the convicted woman raped his three sons, one aged six and twins aged 8.

In the first count, the woman’s 6-year-old son on unknown dates in April last year, and his two elder brothers were staying with the mother.

Initially, the boys would sleep on the floor while the mother slept on the bed but later, the mother asked her three sons to join her on the bed.

She is said to have told them that she wanted to teach them how to have sexual intercourse.

The mother instructed the youngest son to remove his clothes and had sex with him. This occurred on several occasions in the presence of his elder brothers, the court heard.

The court that the mother threatened the complainant that she would not give him food if he ever disclosed the abuse to anyone.

The second and third counts happened in similar fashion when the mother was raping her twin sons during the same period.

However, the mother left the complainants alone and directed them never to disclose the matter to anyone, otherwise she would abandon them and would not give them food.

The children were then taken in by their step grandmother.

The matter came to light after a neighbour’s daughter was sexually abused and the step grandmother quizzed them on where they had learnt that and they spilled the beans.

A report was then made to the police leading to the arrest of the mother.