Justice Sedoten Ogunsanya of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja has convicted and sentenced a teacher, Chukwu Ndubuisi, to life imprisonment for defiling a six-year-old pupil of Mind Builders School, Lagos.
Justice Ogunsanya jailed Ndubuisi, who was the school’s art teacher, after she found him guilty of a one-count charge of child defilement brought against him by the state government.
He had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
But in her judgment, Justice Ogunsanya held that the prosecution has proved his case against the defendant beyond all reasonable doubts as the fact, circumstances and quality of evidence against the defendant were compelling.
The judge noted that the first time the survivor told her mother of her experience was on the day she was discussing the case of a seven-year-old girl that was defiled and killed and which went viral.
The court pointed out that they went outside and the survivor narrated her experience to her, pleading with her mother not to tell her father and brother.
The court noted that the mother told the father, following which they went to her school but the art teacher was not around.
She noted that the parents reported the matter at Omole Police Station, following which the case was investigated, and a test was conducted on the survivor at Ikosi Health Centre, which revealed that the survivor had been defiled.
She said the matter was later taken up by the Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA).
Justice Ogunsanya held that the account of the survivor and her mother were uncontroverted, corroborated each other and gave an excellent account of the assault.
She said the survivor told the court that sometimes her teacher (defendant) asked her to remove her uniform and he then put his “bumbum” into her “bumbum”, but another time, he called her into the art room, put her on the table, parted her panties and put his thing into my thing”.
The judge also dismissed the submission by defence witnesses that the incident was not recorded on the school’s CCTV.
The court upheld the result of the test conducted at the Mirabel Center which showed that the survivor had torn hymen and reddish vulva and that there was evidence of forceful penetration.
Justice Ogunsanya therefore, convicted the defendant as charged and subsequently sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment.
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