315 hours community service for sexually violating corpse

Patience Nhamburo

A man from Epworth, a settlement on the outskirts of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, has been sentenced to 315 hours of community service for sexually violating a corpse.

Harare Magistrate Sheunesu Matova convicted Big Sipiliano of violating a corpse and indecent assault.

Sipiliano will serve 210 hours at Epworth Police Station for the first offence, and the remaining 105 hours after completing the first sentence.

Initially, Magistrate Matova had sentenced him to six months for the first sentence, but wholly suspended them. The five months for the second offence were also wholly suspended on condition he does not commit a similar crime in five years.

The court heard that on January 2, 2021, a witness was at a funeral in a room where the deceased’s body was.

Sipiliano entered the room and expressed his “undying love” for the deceased, saying he wished he had been intimate with her before her death.

He subsequently uncovered the corpse and remarked that “she still looks beautiful”. He then went on top of the corpse; making sexually suggestive moves with his clothes on.

One of the mourners tried to restrain him, but he threatened to assault her.

Sipiliano pleaded not guilty to both charges.