Man Marries 14-Year-Old Daughter, Threatens Witnesses With Lightning

A man married his 14-year-old daughter in Zimbabwe, and before you get the wrong idea that this is some sweet story about a minister officiating his daughter’s wedding ceremony, let us reemphasize:

His 14-year-old daughter; and no, this has nothing to do with him being a clergyman, though he is described as “a traditional healer” from the Bezha village in the Umzingwane District, by Your Jewish News.

No, by “married his daughter,” we mean he took her as his wife following the death of his own. From there, the two proceeded to have two children together before the daughter reportedly got sick of the sexual abuse and abandoned him and their kids, ages three and four.

Following the death of wife Joyce Mpofu, Killion Moyo, 65, said he was fulfilling his wife’s dying wish that he “take a woman in the family who would take her role.”

Moyo took that to mean the 14-year-old.

Unfortunately, it only gets worse from there. “After Moyo’s abuse became public, two more girls came forward with allegations that they were forced to have sex with him. One woman is a neighbor’s daughter, now 23. She also gave birth to Moyo’s children, who are 5 and 8 years old,” reports Anika Rao.

The 23-year-old victim claimed that she was given to Moyo when she was in the seventh grade in exchange for “cattle and other items.”

At the time, the seventh grader was told Moyo “would pay her school fees,” but he commenced a sexual relationship with her at once.

Moyo was said to have forced his victims to wear a special bracelet and said that “lightning would strike them if they told anyone about their relationship,” some of which lasted for as long as a decade.

Moyo also threatened to use the lightning — good luck with that — on nearby villagers who knew of the abuse but said nothing out of fear.

The Chronicle, a Zimbabwean newspaper, broke the initial story and noted that the victim count is “at least two,” which means more could be announced by the end of the investigation.

One of the area residents spoke to the paper following Moyo’s arrest.

“I was delighted when they told me that they were in my village to arrest him,” said local headman Man Nkala. “We don’t want people to lie about the ancestors and take advantage of the vulnerable in society. This should be a wake-up call to all the false prophets and traditional healers who manipulate women and girls in the name of cleansing them.”

Before we or anyone else goes off picking on Zimbabwe, this sort of thing, unfortunately, happens over here as well. Take this 2012 story where a woman claimed “genetic attraction” to her 16-year-old son. She was arrested and given four years for essentially being one of the worst human beings who ever lived.