A 44-year-old man from Masvingo in Zimbabwe forced his two daughters aged 14 and 16 years to engage in a sexual threesome with him after the death of their mother and one of the girls fell pregnant.

The man (name withheld to protect the victims) told the girls he was raping them to get rid of bad luck that he alleged was plaguing the family.

He stunned the court when he said he just touched the girls’ sexual organs with his penis but never effected penetration, as part of a family tradition to cast away evil spirits.

He had a hard time trying to convince the court that his daughter fell pregnant without sex like the biblical Virgin Mary.

Masvingo magistrate Lyn-Marry Manyika found it hard to believe the girl fell pregnant “miraculously” and sentenced him to 20 years in prison for rape.

Prosecuting Joshua Mundondo told the court how between October and November last year, the man shared his bed with his two daughters, one doing Form Two and the other one in Form Four.

The man would allegedly be intimate with each of them while the other watched.

The elder daughter reported the abuse to the police when she discovered she was six weeks pregnant.

The children told the court that their father shifted to their bedroom when their mother died and he would sleep between them on their bed.

On the first night that the man slept with the girls, he caresed and forced the elder daughter to have sex with him while the younger one watched.

The girls said he threatened to kill them if they screamed. He then made it a habit to rape his children from that day.

The elder girl went to Mvuma to pursue her education and it was then, she discovered that her father had made her pregnant.