Lawyers representing Goodness and Mercy Ministries leader Prophet T Freddy who allegedly raped and assaulted radio presenter Rutendo Makuti, yesterday challenged the admissibility of a recording played in court as evidence implicating their client.
When T Freddy’s trial commenced on Thursday , the state played a recording between him and Makuti after visiting her aunt who wanted to understand the nature of the relationship between the pastor and the broadcaster.
In the recording, Makuti accused T Freddy of raping her.
But T Freddy’s lead lawyer Everson Chatambudza yesterday argued that the hour long recording was inadmissible as it did not meet requirements of the law to be tendered as evidence.
He argued that the recording was not in its originfreddal form as the phone which recorded it was not the one used to play it in court.
He said an expert witness should have come to court to certify that the recording was not tempered with.
Magistrate Gloria Takundwa, however allowed the recording to be tendered as evidence for the purpose of the trial.
She also ruled the court would consider the weight of the recording when making its deliberations and also call the police officer who extracted it from Makuti’s phone to testify.
Under cross examination Chatambudza queried why Makuti had denied in court that she had a consensual relationship with T Freddy when in the recording she told her aunt she planned having sex with the pastor a year after the passing on of her husband as per tradition.
“Well, when I said that to her I was trying to say we were courting but not dating.It was a courtship and not a relationship,” Makuti responded.
Chatambudza asked Makuti why she had told her aunt that she loved T Freddy very much.
“I never said that I loved him very much.I just recall saying I used to love and respect him that is all,” replied the radio presenter.
T Freddy’s lawyer questioned why she did not leave her bedroom when she saw the pastor lying on her bed on the November 2020 night she claimed she was raped, despite alleging he always pestered her about having sex with her since October the same year.
“I thought T Freddy had understood that I was not ready for sex because he seemed understanding whenever I rejected him that is why I never thought of leaving the room,” she replied.
Asked why she did not tell the police that T Freddy had a pistol on that night, Makuti said the pastor never used it to threaten her, so she saw no need to include it in her statement.
“There are a lot of things you said here in court, but left out in your statement to the police which is material information, why were you concealing information from the same people who are suppose to investigate your case?” Chatambudza asked.
Makuti answered “I can not possibly say everything to the police, if I said everything the statement would have been too long,infact there are other things I wanted to tell the court but restrained myself because of time.”
At the close of his cross examination for the day, Chatambudza played a recording between T Freddy and Makuti where the pastor confronted the radio presenter on her claims that every time they had sex she would bleed the following day and would have scars on her thighs.
In the recording, Makuti is heard saying : “I am sorry about that statement where I said I always bleed and have scars on my thighs whenever we have sex, I did that out of spite and wanted to hurt you,”
When asked to comment on that, Makuti said T Freddy invited her to his car in the presence of his lawyer and bodyguard and forced her to make the recorded apology.
The trial shall continue on January 13 as Chatambudza indicated he still had a lot of questions for Makuti.
T Freddy is being accused of raping the radio presenter twice on different occasions as well as physically assaulting her at Moja Shopping Centre.
