Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court has convicted and sentenced a security guard, Olawale Olarewaju, to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
Justice Oshodi Oshodi jailed Olarewaju for the rest of his life after holding that the prosecution has been able to prove the ingredients of defilement beyond all reasonable doubt against the convict.
The state government had arraigned the convict in 2016 over a one-count charge of defilement contrary to Section 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
The prosecution called two witnesses during the trial, while the convict testified in his own defence.
In his judgement, Justice Oshodi held that the convict contradicted himself and made his evidence-in-chief unreliable.
The judge held that he believed the testimony of the survivor ( now 18 years old) who testified that she was 13 years old when the incident happened and that the defendant was a security guard at a construction site.
The court also noted that the survivor told the court that the defendant forcefully had sex with her when she went to fetch water at the site.
The judge held, “The survivor gave her testimony and said that she went to fetch water at the construction site where the defendant worked when he came from her back, closed her mouth and found herself in the room with him.
“She said that the defendant ‘tore my clothes, forcefully had sex with me, and I started having pains in my vagina.’
“She testified further that she informed her parents about the incident, and the father reported the case at the nearest police station.
“The survivor further told the court that she was taken to Mirabel Medical Centre for examination,” the judge stated.
Justice Oshodi further held that the survivor’s evidence was corroborated by that of her father, who was the second prosecution witness.
The court held that the survivor gave a vivid and unshaken testimony of what the defendant did to her.
He stated, “I believe her. The defendant’s denial does not hold water as he admitted knowing the survivor but made a U-turn during cross-examination that he did not know her. He also admitted that the survivor came to the compound to fetch water.”
The judge, thereby, convicted the security guard of the charge and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
He also directed that the convict’s name be entered into the Sexual Offences Register maintained by the Lagos State government.
