Rapist tutor loses appeal against 30-year jail term
What you need to know:
Ibrahim Haule was convicted by the Iringa Resident Magistrate’s Court in September 2018 of defiling a 12-year old schoolgirl at their home when her mother had briefly gone out shopping
Dar es Salaam. A ki-Swahili teacher at Nyawetege Primary School in Kilolo District, Iringa Region, will continue to remain behind bars for 28 years - and pay a Sh5 million fine - after losing his appeal to set aside conviction for defiling a Standard Seven pupil in 2017.
Ibrahim Haule was convicted by the Iringa Resident Magistrate’s Court in September, 2018 of defiling a 12-year-old schoolgirl at their home when her mother had briefly gone out for shopping.
He was sentenced to thirty years in jail. He lost his initial attempt to challenge the conviction and sentence in the High Court in 2018.
A three-man bench of the Court of Appeal, chaired by Sivangilwa Mwangesi and two other judges Stella Mugasha and Gerald Ndika dismissed Haule’s appeal and upheld sentence and Sh5 million compensation order.
“In view of what has been highlighted by evidence, we entertain no shred of doubt that the victim was defiled and that it was the appellant who defiled her,” said the judges.
Mr Haule worked as Kiswahili teacher at Nyawetege Primary School while the victim was a Standard Seven pupil at the school.
The court heard that the victim was ravished near their home when her mother had left for evening shopping.
It was around 7pm when Mr Haule arrived at the victim’s home, finding her and her brother inside their house preparing supper and started inquiring the whereabouts of their mother.
Upon being informed that their mother had gone out for shopping, Mr Haule set inside the house, dragged the victim to a nearby maize field and defiled her.
The appellant fled on seeing the victim’s mother approaching the crime scene searching for her child. A medical examination report tendered in court showed that the victim had been molested.
Mr Haule strongly denied to have defiled the pupil, claiming that he was arrested by village leaders while sleeping at his home and charged for an offence he knew nothing about.
The court also rejected the defence of alibi he raised and relied by the appellant that he was no at his friend’s house at the time the alleged crime occurred.
The victim had told the court during trial that Mr Haule had taught her for seven years.
