An eight-year-old girl has narrated before the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court how a man chased after her and her friends when coming from school, dragged her six-year-old friend and then defiled her.

The eight-year-old girl was testifying in a matter in which Richard Mwila, a 21-year-old unemployed man of Zingalume Township, is charged with defilement.

Particulars of the offence allege that on October 11, last year, Mwila defiled a child under the age of 16.

When the matter came up for continued trial before Magistrate Alice Walusiku, Monday, the eight-year-old girl narrated that on the material day, she knocked off from school around 16:00 hours in the company of the victim and her other friend.

She said while walking home, the accused, who she referred to as ‘Uncle Richard’, started chasing them.

The girl said while running, her friend dropped her school bag.

“When she was picking the bag, uncle Richard lifted her and took her to his house where he defiled her,” the eight-year-old told the Court.

She further testified that the next day, her friend narrated the ordeal to her and that they later informed their teacher at school.

The matter comes up on February 12, this year, for continued trial.

Previously, the victim’s mother told the Court that she learnt about the defilement after she was called by school authorities, who told her that she was urgently needed at school.

The woman said when she went to her child’s school, she discovered that her daughter had been defiled.

And Detective Sergeant Fidelis Mupatu, who also testified in the matter, told the Court that on the material day, he reported for work and was allocated a defilement docket.

He testified that he later on interviewed the victim, who narrated to him that on the material day, she was walking back home from school in the company of two of her friends.

Mupatu said the child narrated that while they were walking, a man started chasing them until he caught her.

He said the man lifted the victim and took her to the nearest house where he made her to lay down in bed and had unlawful carnal knowledge of her.

Mupatu said when he visited the scene, he discovered that the accused’s house was located about 10 to 15 metres from where the victim was picked before being defiled.

The officer said during an identification parade, the child failed to identify the accused, adding that the child was at the time hurt on her private parts, which were also bleeding.