A 57-year-old woman will spend the next 29 years in prison and return as an 86-year-old following her conviction and sentencing for defiling an 8-year-old cattle herder in a bush.
According to the BBC, the convict found the victim herding cattle at a village in the southern district of Iringa and asked where his friends were. After the little boy said his friends were not around, she grabbed him and sexually assaulted him under a tree.
Mbwelwa was arrested later, charged with the offence and prosecuted before her eventual conviction and sentencing.
It is reported that the Easter African country’s prosecutors relied on five witnesses, including a doctor who examined the boy and confirmed he had injuries and had contracted sexual infections due to contamination in the genital area.
The only defence the middle-aged woman reportedly put up was that she was an adult with children and grandchildren who depend on her for survival.
Mbwelwa’s lawyer, Frank Mwela has hinted at appealing the sentence, arguing that his client was unjustly thrown into jail because she had not been medically examined to confirm that she had the sexually transmitted diseases she is alleged to have infected the little boy with.
“My client was not tested positive for those diseases, which both my client and her witness have confirmed they do not have because one of the witnesses is her husband,” the defence lawyer said.
For obvious reasons, the STDs she allegedly infected the victim with have not been disclosed.
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