The Ileje District Court in Songwe region has sentenced a resident of Msia village, Chitete district in the district, Furaha Simkonda to 24 lashes after finding him guilty of trying to rape a six-year-old first grade student.

The Presiding Magistrate of the court, Mungi Mwampashe said the court has convicted the 18-year-old accused after being satisfied with the evidence of the prosecution.

Mwampashe said the court gave a sentence of 24 lashes in accordance with article 160(B) of chapter 17 of the law as amended in 2019.

He said that acts of rape and prostitution have flourished in the district, so the punishment will be a lesson for those who destroy children's dreams.

Simkonda asked him to reduce the punishment because it was the first time he committed such a crime and he will be a good ambassador in the community.

Earlier, the government prosecutor, Elibariki Mpinga told the court that the young man committed an offense on July 8 this year by assaulting the student around five in the morning while he was going to school wearing his school uniform.

Mpinga claimed that when the accused wanted to perform a sexual act on the child, a citizen who heard noises in the bush went to save the child.

The court was told that the young man was arrested on July 24 this year in the market area of ​​Kijiji Cha Msia in collaboration with the citizens after there was information about the young man wanting to defile a child.

One of the witnesses in the case, Esinati Mtinya, told the court that while he was going to the farm, he heard the sound of a child crying in the bush and when he went, he found that the boy had dropped him with his pants down to his knees and he tried to catch him but he overpowered him and ran away.

Outside the court, the Social Welfare Officer in the district, Tabitha Swila, said that acts of adultery are rampant in the district and that more than five cases have been brought to court there, including defiling children under the age of 15.