Source: New Era
The Windhoek Magistrate's Court on Monday postponed to November 22 the criminal case in which a police officer is accused of raping a 24-year-old woman and a 15-year-old girl who used to stay with him at his house.

The accused Leonard Kuduva (48) faces several counts of rape.

Prosecutor Erich Naikaku asked magistrate Helvi Shilemba for a postponement for further police investigation, as there were certain aspects of the investigation that are still outstanding.

Naikaku added that the docket was also unavailable.

The prosecutor said that Kuduva was free on bail and requested that his bail conditions be extended to November 22.

Magistrate Shilemba then remanded the case to November 22.

Kuduva was granted bail of N$4 000 last month after being in custody for over a month. One of his bail conditions is that he does not interfere with the evidence or the complainants, directly or indirectly.

He is accused of raping a 15-year-old girl on numerous occasions in his house at the Patrick Iyambo College between May and July this year, and of raping a 24-year-old woman.

He was arrested on August 2 this year. The accused maintains that the 15-year-old girl told him that she was 23.

Kuduva claims that the sexual encounters were consensual and that it was the girl who called him for sex via SMS (text message). But last month the girl contradicted what Kuduva had said, testifying he had forced himself on her on four different occasions.

Last month, the girl informed the court that she had an abusive father and went to live with Kuduva in the middle of May this year after Kuduva met her at a bar in Otjomuise.

The girl testified that she informed Kuduva of her ordeal, and he took her in.
She anticipated he would assist her by taking her to welfare, but this did not happen.

The girl described how Kuduva had sex with her against her will on four different occasions between May and July this year.

The first sex encounter, the girl informed the court, was a week after she moved into the accused's home, a government house at Patrick Iyambo College.

She said they slept in the same bedroom. One night, Kuduva allegedly came in the bedroom naked, and forced her to have sex against her will.

The girl informed the court that she started crying, but Kuduva told her not to cry, as he did not want his children to hear. The second sex encounter, the girl testified, was a week later, when Kuduva asked her to join him in his bed.
She told him that in their culture they do not sleep with married men but Kuduva replied they could have sex in the bed in which she was sleeping.

The third time, the girl testified, was when they went into the hills around Kleine Kuppe,

Kuduva allegedly told her to wait while he went to urinate and when he came back he forced her to have sex in his car.

The fourth instance, the girl said, was on a weekday, when Kuduva SMS'd her asking whether she wanted to have sex with him while taking off the shorts she was wearing.
On both occasions when prosecutor Erich Naikaku asked the girl whether the sex encounters were consensual, she replied the sex was not consensual.

After the fourth sex encounter, the girl told the court, she informed a police officer at Patrick Iyambo College, who gave her taxi money after which she went to report the matter at the Windhoek Police Station near the High Court.

• Namibia