November 30, 2021
By: Hafsatu Z Bangura
Mohamed Conteh was arraigned before Justice Momoh Jah Stevens at the Sexual Modern Offences Court on the 29th November 2021 at the High Court of Freetown on two counts charges.
According to the particulars of offence the accused person Mohamed Conteh on a date between the 1st January 2017 and the 31st December 2017 at Orsu Guest House Lungi, in the Portloko District of the Republic of Sierra Leone engaged in a sexual intercourse with the victim who happens to be his daughter.
The accused was indicted on two count charges, on count 1 is incest contrary to section 10 (1) of the sexual offences Act No.12 of 2012 and on count 2 incest contrary to section 10 (1) of the sexual offences Act 2012, Act No.12 of 2012. In count 2 the accused Mohammed Conteh on a date unknown at Flamingo Guest House Bamoi Luma in the Kambia District of the republic of Sierra Leone engaged in sexual intercourse with his daughter.
First Prosecution Witness (PW1) testified before Justice Momoh Jah Stevens a seventeen year old and SSS3 pupil of the Ahmadiyya Secondary School Rokupr, Kambia District.
The victim started with a given Modus Operandi of his father in 2017.
The victim said on several occasions the accused would approach her by night and undress her and places a towel under her legs and the accused will also undress himself and insert his penis inside the victim.
The victim in her statement said she was severely beaten by her father who happens to be the accused person, and that she was tired so she said she fled the house of the accused to put up with her aunt Madam Kadie who happens to be the younger sister of the accused but the victim said the aunt did not remedy the situation, but returned her back to the said accused.
The victim further testified that the accused referred to her as a witch and therein took her to lungi for traditional treatment and counseling to an herbalist by the name of Pa Lamina.
The victim said the accused once visited lungi and lodged at a guest house in lungi called Orsu where the accused invited her from the herbalist and physically forced her and penetrated his penis into her vagina and had sexual intercourse with the victim for the first time.
The victim said she saw blood oozing from her vagina and told the accused person “Dad you have done bad to me’’ and the accused person responded “Instead of me giving money to women in the street, it is better I used the money for your Education”.
The victim testified further that the accused person took her from lungi, returned to Freetown and thereafter moved with her to Kambia District, and then the victim said she decided to search for the residence of her grandfather, Pa Adekalie, in Kambia District and stayed with her grandfather who later enrolled the victim back in school.
The victim continued that when the accused person learnt that the victim was now in school, the victim said the accused person came to Kambia and lodged at the Flamingo Guest House and had sexual intercourse with her on weekends and during the holidays.
The victim went on that in the month of August 2020 following the closure of schools the accused person invited her to the same guest house at Kambia where she and the accused lived in the same room for seven months.
The victim said at a time when she became ill, the accused person took her to the Kambia Government Hospital where it was confirmed that the victim was five months pregnant.
The victim said when she was hospitalized in Kambia and the accused person showed no interest in her well-being so the victim decided to escape from the hospital back to the guest house where the victim said she met the accused and the accused asked her to drink syrup (a traditional medicine)
The victim concluded that she refused drinking the said syrup given to her by the accused and prior to this rejection the victim said the accused person beat her severely and she later woke up at the Kambia government hospital where she learned that she had a miscarriage of the twenty four weeks pregnancy.
Second Prosecution Witness (PW2) Alhassan Teddy Turay, a Detective Sergeant who is attached at the Family Support Unit Criminal Investigation Department Headquarters, Freetown said he was on duty when a case and enquiry file was transferred from Kambia police on the 31st March 2020.
The second prosecution witness tendered in court as custodian an endorsed medical report which states that the victim was pregnant for twenty four weeks but that the fetus had been destroyed upon medical examination and thereafter forced to give birth and that the victim was unstable because of loss of blood.
The other endorsed medical report that was tendered by the witness corroborated that the victim was certainly pregnant for twenty four weeks and she had suffered from serious assault and battery.
The accused person in his voluntary cautioned statement to the police corroborated the said statement of the victim that indeed he shared a bedroom with the victim at Bamoi Luma, Flamingo Guest House and did so without the approval of the grandfather of the victim who was now taking care of the victim when she was earlier abandoned by her father in Kambia.
The accused confessed in his voluntary cautioned statement that it is true that he tied the hands of the victim in the room at the guest house with a rope. The accused also confessed that he took the victim without the consent of the mother of the victim Madam Isatu Jalloh who resides at Banana Water of whom the accused does not have any love relationship with the victim’s mother.
The accused had a witness by the name of Mariama Edwina Conteh.
Second Defense witness Mariama Edwina Conteh (DW2) described the accused as her father and the victim as her adopted sister, according to the defense witness No.2, she said the victim had once threatened to kill the accused (his father) or cause him to go mad.
The second defense witness continued that the mother of the victim abandoned the victim at the time the victim was five months old with the accused and her step mother and said she is not aware of any sexual relationship between the victim and the accused.
Justice Momoh Jah Stevens in his ruling said the accused is charged on two count charges and on count 1 the accused is sentenced to 8years imprisonment for incest allegedly committed in a guest house in Portloko and in another guest house in Kambia and on count 2 the accused person is sentenced to 8years imprisonment according to the law of incest involving a male who engages in sexual intercourse between family members.
Justice Momoh Jah Stevens in his ruling continued that the accused deliberately trafficked the victim from Freetown to Lungi at a guest house called Orsu where the victim said the accused first had sexual intercourse with her.
The human trafficking continues as the accused brought the victim from lungi to Freetown and from Freetown to Kambia where again the accused took the victim to live with her in the same guest house, according to the victim for seven months but according to the accused they resided for six months.
Justice Momoh Jah Stevens furthermore stated in his ruling that the accused in the process of moving with the victim from one district to another with the sole aim of having sexual intercourse with the victim.
Justice Stevens noted that this was an offence of incest and human trafficking because the accused admitted to the detectives that he did took the victim to the provinces without the approval of her biological mother or the grandfather of the victim.
The accused had nothing to say in his plea mitigation.
Justice Momoh Jah Stevens in his ruling said the accused must pay compensation to the victim in accordance with section 37 (2) (f) of the sexual offences Act 2012 and must compensate the victim the sum of thirty million Leones (le 30,000,000.00) as compensation for emotional distress, pain and suffering the victim endured at the hands of the accused and the accused must pay the said sum immediately after serving his jail term.
The prosecution filed an instrument signed by the Director of Public Prosecutions dated 13th October 2021 for the accused to be tried by a judge alone instead of a judge and jury pursuant to Section 144 (2) of the criminal procedure act No.32 of 1965 as repealed and replaced by section 3 of the criminal procedure (amendment) act 1981, act No.11 of 1981.
The court granted the said application whilst the defense counsel did not object to the said application of a trial by a judge alone.
The defense counsel C. Campbell represented the accused whilst M.P. Sesay represented the state.
The accused was sentenced to 8years imprisonment on two count charges which sum up to 16years imprisonment.