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Rachael Omidji
On Wednesday, March 15, 2023, An Ikeja Sexual offences and Domestic Violence Court sentenced Stephen Francis to life imprisonment for defiling an 11-year-old girl in his room.
NAN reports that Justice Abiola Soladoye held that the prosecution had sufficiently proved the three essential ingredients of defilement against the convict.
Soladoye said that the overwhelming narrative of the prosecution witnesses, the two exhibits tendered at Olosan Police Station, and the state CIID Panti, made by the convict, voluntarily admitted his guilt.
According to her, the confessional statements of the convict were consistent with the evidence given by the survivor and her mother before the court.
“The survivor, an 11-year-old primary five pupil, identified the defendant in the dock as the man who sexually defiled her when he told her that his wife was calling her to run an errand for her.
“The defendant took her to his house and had sex with her. She said, “he took me to his room and slept with me. I went to my mother and reported to her. After that, we went to the police station”.
“ The survivor’s testimony was consistent and unshaken under cross-examination.
The survivor’s mother testified that she went to buy drugs for herself on the day of the incident and that she met her daughter crying when she got home.
“The evidence of the prosecution witness 2 (survivor’s mother) that she examined the private part of her daughter and found sperm confirmed the narration of the survivor.
“There is no contradiction to nullify the guilt of the defendant as the evidence before the court is very clear.
“The defendant stripped her naked and had unlawful sexual intercourse with her,” she said.
The judge further held that slight penetration amounted to sexual intercourse, and denial by the defendant was an afterthought.
However, the defendant claimed he was at work the day the incident happened but failed to bring an alibi to buttress his point.
“Parents and guardians should be alive to good parenting in this present day and time.
“I hereby find the defendant guilty as charged of the one-count charge of defilement and he is hereby sentenced to life imprisonment.
“The defendant should have his name registered in the sexual offence register as maintained by Lagos State,” Soladoye said.
They said the convict committed the offence on Aug. 12, 2020, on Fagbenro Street, Idi-Araba, Mushin, in Lagos.
The prosecution submitted that the offence contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
NAN
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