Justice Abiola Soladoye of the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic violence Court has sentenced a man, Ifeanyi Ndieze, to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl in a church.
The judge held on Tuesday,
October 3, 2023, that the prosecution sufficiently proved the charge of sexual
assault by penetration against Ndieze in line with Section 261 of the Criminal
Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The judge said that the child
identified the defendant as the man who carried her during a church programme
and sexually assaulted her by inserting his finger into her private parts.
“The child was taken home, and
while the mother bathed her, she was bleeding uncontrollably. At the hospital,
doctors said that the matter should be reported to the police,” the judge held.
“The child, at the police
station, was bleeding still, while her underwear, soaked with blood, was
removed and taken as an exhibit. The child, when taken to the hospital, was in
severe pain and found to have been forcibly penetrated.
She described the convict as a
disgraceful spectacle.
"The defendant is a
pathological liar as he tried to deny the offence. This is an unforgivable
behaviour. The defendant is hereby found guilty of sexually assaulting the
four-year-old child, and he is hereby sentenced to life imprisonment,” Soladoye
held.
She also said that the
convict’s name should be in the Lagos State Sexual Offences Register.
The judge advised parents to
take proper care of their children.
"The mother of the child
should not have left her with her elder brother, a six-year-old boy,” Soladoye
held.
Lagos State counsel, Mrs.
Olufunke Adegoke, presented four witnesses against the convict and tendered
four exhibits.
The convict testified in his
defence along with three others – his sister, nephew and niece.
According to the Lagos State
Government, which prosecuted the case, the convict committed the offence on
October 29, 2020, on Salau Street Lagos.
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