GWERU provincial magistrate Ms Beaulity Dube has sentenced a newly-wedded church deacon Edson Ushe to seven months in prison after convicting him of indecently assaulting two teenage girls from his congregation.
Word of Life International Ministries church deacon Edson Ushe (43), who was accused of unlawfully kissing and groping two Form 2 students’ private areas and backs, made an appearance before Ms. Dube. Ushe entered a not guilty plea to both counts, but after a thorough trial and a substantial amount of evidence against him, he was found guilty.
He was given a seven-month prison sentence by Ms. Dube, which was suspended for three months if he behaved well. Ushe’s sentence of four more months was suspended entirely in exchange for a $400 fine. The girls (names withheld to preserve anonymity) were assaulted by the deacon when their parents were gone, according to testimony given to the court.
The State’s Monica Mungwena informed the court that Ushe paid the youngsters’ parents a visit on Christmas Eve of last year, staying for around half an hour, while the parents were in Bulawayo. Ushe asked the girls to go with him to his car, the court was informed.
The girls were briefly left alone with Ushe as one of the minors’ brothers walked back inside to get a drink, which gave the deacon the perfect chance to engage in his predatory behavior.
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Ushe shamelessly grabbed the first complainant by the waist, caressed her intimate areas, and stroked her buttocks while the girls’ brother was inside the house.
“Ushe’s despicable behavior did not spare the second complainant either,” Ms. Mungwena claimed. According to testimony given in court, Ushe stopped approaching the girl when he saw her brother coming back carrying the drink he had requested.
Under the pretense of opening the gate, Ushe asked the second complainant to accompany him to his car, according to testimony given to the court. The second complainant was allegedly contacted by the church deacon, who stopped the car at the gate, kissed her on the forehead, and then inappropriately touched her buttocks, according to the court’s hearing.
Ushe made some unwanted advances, but the girl bravely pushed him away and ran back to her house protection. She told her brother about the horrific ordeal she had gone through at the hands of the church deacon there. Her brother did not take long to tell their parents about the upsetting experience that had occurred while they were away.
