By Abimbola Ogunnaike
A 26-year-old electrician, Sunday George, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Thursday, 11 May, 2023 for defiling his neighbour’s 12-year-old daughter in a bathroom.
Justice Abiola Soladoye held that the prosecution sufficiently proved the charge of defilement against the defendant, just as she referred to the convict as an irresponsible adult and a pathological liar whose testimony was an afterthought and lacked credibility.
According to Soladoye, the court was satisfied with the testimony of the victim/survivor because it was unambiguous, noting that the testimony was chilling, cogent, convincing and truthful.
“The defendant defiled her by having sex with her in the bathroom and told her not to tell anyone. He had sex with her on several occasions in the bathroom anytime she goes to watch a movie on the defendant’s phone in his room,” she added.
The judge said that the child’s testimony was corroborated by the evidence of Inspector Medinat Ganiyu who investigated the case and testified that the survivor and her father came to a police station to lodge a complaint.
She added that the convict’s name should be written in the Sexual Offenders Register of the Lagos State Government.
The judge appealed to relevant authorities not to relent in sensitising parents in market places, bus and train terminals, as well as at Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) meetings, on proper monitoring of their wards so as to avoid sexual predators tampering with them.
