For defiling his neighbour’s 15-year-old girl, Justice Rahman Oshodi of a Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court yesterday, sentenced a 24-year-old baker, Adesina Farouk to life imprisonment.
The judge held that the prosecution proved the case against the defendant and therefore sentenced him accordingly.
While delivering judgment, Justice Oshodi said that the convict is a pathological liar, who tried to lie his way through the case by saying that the prosecutrix (survivor) was 18 years and that they were in a relationship, while evidence showed that she was born on May 19, 2005.
The judge held that there was consistency in the evidence of the survivor, indicating that the convict forcefully had sexual intercourse with her, which was not consensual, as the convict ripped off her pants and there was blood everywhere.
“The medical report showed blunt forceful penetration of the vagina and to the medical doctor, the prosecutrix looked very unhappy when she came for the medical examination.
“The prosecutrix testified that the defendant forcefully had sex with her when she went to deliver pure water for him in his house. She said when she got to the front of the house and knocked, the convict did not reply which made her enter the house to drop the water only for the defendant to grab her neck from back, ripped off her pants and forcefully had sexual intercourse with her,” the court held.
The judge further referred to the testimony of the survivor that she started bleeding due to the force and that the defendant threatened to kill her if she told anyone about it.
When she was cross-examined by the defence counsel, the prosecutrix replied that, ‘if he did not force me, how did my pant got torn?”
The court rejected the defendant’s evidence that the prosecutrix was his girlfriend and that the sex was consensual.
The judge, therefore, held that the charge of defilement was a grave offence and sentenced Farouk to life imprisonment.
He ordered that his name be registered in the Lagos State Sexual Offences Register.
“Mr Adesina Farouk, you have been found guilty of defilement under Section 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State and the offence is a grave crime that involves taking advantage of a child’s vulnerability and innocence for selfish sexual gratification.
“It is an offence that leaves its scars on its victims, both physically and emotionally and can have a long lasting effect on their mental health and overall well-being. In this case, the evidence presented before the court has established that on November 29, 2020 you had forceful sexual intercourse with the 15-year-old victim, who was your neighbour,” the court held.
The defence counsel, in his allocutus, prayed for mercy, stressing that the convict could still be useful to the society, while the prosecution counsel, Ms Inumidun Solarin prayed the court to sentence the convict accordingly.
Solarin asked the court to apply the full weight of the law on Farouk to serve as deterrent to others and his name registered in the Sexual Offences Register as maintained by Lagos State government.
