November 8, 2021
By: Hafsatu Z. Bangura
High Court judge, Justice Manuela Harding has on the 5th November, 2021 sentenced one Abdul Raman Sesay to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of sexually abusing a 6 year-old toddler.
Sesay was before the court on one count of sexual penetration, contrary to Section 19 of the Sexual Offences Act No 12 of 2012, as repealed and replaced by Section 4 of the Sexual Offense (Amendment) Act of 2019 Act No. 8 of 2019.
The convict on 1st of November, 2019, in Freetown, engaged in an act of sexual penetration with a child below the age of eighteen.
While ruling on the matter, Justice Harding said the convict had pleaded not guilty to the offence as charged, adding that the prosecution had applied that the convict be tried by judge alone.
She added that the court granted the said application and that the prosecution led four witnesses against the accused person, including the parents of the victim.
Justice Harding stated that there was a clear case of corroboration that the allegation made against the convict was true.
She said after the prosecution closed its case, the convict was asked as to how he might want to testify, and that he chose to rely on his statement he made to the police.
Justice Harding said the victim in her testimony in court said she went into the bedroom of the convict where the convict asked her to undress and eventually penetrated her.
She said the convict in his statement to the police said he was not at the residence at the time of the incident and the victim had never entered into his bedroom.
“I submit that the prosecution has proven its case beyond reasonable doubt. The accused is therefore guilty of sexual penetration. He is therefore sentenced to life imprisonment,” she ruled.