HARARE - A peeping Tom who spent hours hanging precariously in a church ceiling while ogling at women relieving themselves in the toilet will have to perform 350 hours of community service after he was found guilty of criminal insult.

Paul Chareka, a 30-year-old who works in the City of Harare’s amenities department was found sitting in the ceiling above the female toilet at the Cranborne Seventh Day Adventist Church while others were attending prayers.

Magistrate Tsatsawani Ndaba had sentenced Chareka to 12 months in prison but suspended three months on condition of good behaviour and the remaining nine months were commuted to a community service at Braeside Police Station.

The court heard that on April 6 this year, Chareka left his house in Hillside and went to the church, pretending to be part of the congregation gathered to praise and worship the Lord.

While at the church, Chareka made his way to the ladies’ toilet, crept into the ceiling and strategically positioned himself at a vantage point in order to get the full view of every woman who would drop-in to answer to the call of nature.

Whatever his fantasies were, they were momentary after one of the women who was relieving herself saw him gawking from the ceiling.

Alarmed, the woman notified the caretaker of the church and other elders who sealed off the area.

Although Chareka tried to flee, there was nowhere to run as incensed church members apprehended him and handed him over to the police. - Helen Kadirire