An Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure, the state capital, has sentenced a man, Sunday Oluwafemi, to life imprisonment for defiling a nine-year-old girl.
Subsequently, the convict was arrested by policemen in the state for committing the offence in Akure in 2019.
It was gathered that the victim was the convict’s wife’s niece living with the couple.
He was charged to court and arraigned before the court on one count of rape.
According to the charge, the convict committed the offence on November 24, 2019, at about 4:pm in Akure, contrary to Section31(1) of the Child’s Right Law, Laws of Ondo State, 2012 and Sections 218 and 257 of the Criminal Code Law of Ondo State 2006.
After different arguments to nail the criminal conviction on the suspect, Justice Yemi Fasanmi held that “The confessional statement of the defendant, both written and oral, with that of the medical doctor showed without equivocation that he indeed committed the offence.”
“The defendant has betrayed the victim’s trust in him, looking at him as a father and also the trust of his brother-in-law who saw him as a good guardian. The evidence of the charge was corroborated as there were several penetrations into the vault of the victim’s vaginal.”
” I, therefore, hold that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant had sexual intercourse with the victim severally and it was not consensual. The mandatory provision is that once a defendant is found guilty of rape, he is liable to life imprisonment.”
The judge convicted the suspect as charged and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
