An Ekiti State High Court, Ado Ekiti Division on Tuesday July 23, sentenced a 24-year-old man, Sunday Asere, to 14 years imprisonment for s@xually assaulting a six-year-old girl.
Asere was arraigned on March 22, 2022, on one count charge of rape.
The charge read, “The defendant sometime in January 2020 at Moferere in Ado Ekiti, did r@pe a six-year-old girl. The offence is contrary to Section 31(2) of the Child Rights Law, Cap. C7, Laws of Ekiti State of Nigeria, 2012.”
The six-year-old girl, who said she was a primary one pupil at that time, said that the defendant, who was her mother’s neighbour, was fond of fondling her private part whenever her mother was not around.
She had said that although she was feeling pain whenever the defendant fondled her private part, she could not tell her mother because of her harshness.
She, however, said that she relayed everything to her father when he (father) came to visit her at school on January 14, 2020, a day after the defendant violated her again, following which the father reported the matter at the police station
The prosecutor, Kunle-Shina Adeyemo, called six witnesses and tendered statements of the defendant and medical report as exhibits.
The defendant, who spoke in his defence through his counsel, Adedayo Adewumi, did not call any witness.
In his judgment, Justice Adekunle Adeleye said that the findings upon medical examination, revealed likely s@xual abuse, but no evidence of penetration of the vagina.
Adeleye stated that from the circumstances, the prosecution was able to establish s@xual assault.
“The defendant is liable for imprisonment for a term of 14 years. Accordingly, the defendant is hereby sentenced to imprisonment for 14 years,” the judge pronounced.