Justice Abiola Soladoye of Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, Ikeja, yesterday, sentenced an apprentice, Godwin Ogboniya, to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting his employer’s nine-year-old daughter.
 
The judge, who found him guilty as charged by the state government, held that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubts, the elements of sexual assault by penetration against Ogboniya.
  
The convict committed the offence between 2019 and 2021 on Ogbewi Street, Cele Egbe in Ikotun area of Lagos.  His offence contravened the provision of Section 261 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
  
In her judgment, Justice Soladoye said the defendant was an unkind and unworthy employee who had been living with the survivor’s father for three years, and embarked on sexual frolicking with the nine-year old survivor.
 
“The survivor recognised the defendant as her father’s apprentice who lived with them for three years. Also, the testimony that the survivor’s mother tried to seduce him, was self-serving, while his denial was an after-thought, which did not hold waters.
 
“The nine-year old girl recognised the defendant in the dock as the man who sexually assaulted her on several occasions when her parents were not around,” the court held.
 
According to the court, upon careful review of the oral and documentary evidence adduced before it, the survivor’s testimony was lucidly corroborated with other prosecution witnesses, which were very compelling.
 
“The investigative police officer, through whom the medical report was tendered, was very detailed, upright and diligent in her testimony. The exhibits tendered were self-explanatory and spoke volumes.”
 
“I believed the evidence of all the prosecution witnesses as well as the exhibit tendered. The proof of injury or rupture of hymen was not necessary in the case of sexual assault, as penetration, no matter how slight, was sufficient to prove the offence.
 

“I found the defendant guilty of penetrating the vagina of the young girl and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

 “The convict’s name should be in the sexual offences register, as maintained by the Lagos State government,” the judge said. Justice Soladoye admonished parents and guardians to be watchful not to entrust their children in the hands of irresponsible adults like the convict. She advised that community awareness through continuous campaigns would go a long way to eradicate the menace of sexual offences in the society.
 
During trial, the state counsel, Ms Abimbola Abolade, called four witnesses to testify for the prosecution while convict testified alone The prosecution counsel had told court that the father of the survivor reported the case to the police, after the survivor summoned up courage to narrate her ordeals to him.