October 21, 2021
By Audrey John
The murder matter for the late Sonia Mary Thomas former student of UNIMAK, Makeni city continue to be heard on preliminary investigation; the matter has on the 20th October, 2021 appeared before Magistrate Sahr Kekura at the Pademba road Magistrate where the second prosecution witness, Sonia Mary Thomas (mother of the deceased) had testified.
Led in evidence by state prosecutor OV Robin Mason Jr., the witness recognized the accused person as a friend of the deceased from Providence International School up To UNIMAK University.
He said on the 6th of September 2021, at around eight in the morning, he received a telephone call from his friend Kindeh who is also a student of UNIMAK informing her that her daughter had an attack.
Upon receiving the information, she keeps following up with her friend to know the status of her daughter. She said in the process, her friend told her that her daughter Sonia Thomas had a confrontation with the accused.
Explaining further the mother of the deceased said shortly after, she was in her room when someone called and confirmed the indecent.
“My Lord when I came outside, I saw a lot of people crying”, she stated.
The mother of the deceased said she was shocked to hear that her daughter has passed off.
“From that point, I requested for the remains to be brought to home, but the police refused saying they will release her in the presence of a family member”; he narrated in the dock with tears.
In continuation of her testimony, the mother of the deceased said she instructed one Ivan Johnson and other to go for the corpse and on arrival in Freetown, the police who accompanied the remains said the body should be taken to Connaught mortuary in order to ascertain the cause of death.
She said on the 8th of September 2021, the consultant pathology carry out post mortem on the remains of the deceased and handed over to them the body for proper burial.
She identified the pathological report and photo of the deceased presented to her by state counsel OV Robin Mason Jr as that of her daughter.
She said she was later called to the Criminal Investigation Department to make a statement.
Testing her evidence in Cross examination by defense counsel J M Jengo, the mother of the deceased in a question put to her confirmed that all what she narrated about the death of her child was hear say.
The matter was adjourned to the 25th October 2021.