A school bus driver, Michael Mowete, was on Tuesday sentenced to life imprisonment for defiling a three-year-old girl.
According to the reports by the News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN), Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court held that the prosecution had discharged the burden of proof against Mowete.
Justice Oshodi, in his judgment, noted that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt the charge of defilement against the school bus driver.
“The convict’s allegation of having an amorous relationship with the mother of the victim in her shop does not hold water.
”One of the defence witnesses, the school bus assistant, told the court that the convict was always in the bus whenever they dropped off the minor at her mother’s shop.
According to the judge, the prosecution gave direct evidence as the survivor, despite her age, narrated to the court how the convict defiled her.
The judge said the evidence of the minor was corroborated with the mother’s and the medical examination evidence while the investigative police officer (IPO) gave circumstantial evidence in the case.
He said: “the mother of the prosecutrix (survivor), in her evidence said that on September 27, 2019, the bus driver dropped her daughter off and her daughter told her ‘mummy! mummy! uncle Michael touched my bumbum and jumped on me’
“The mother said she thought it was just an ordinary touch until she wanted to bathe her daughter at night and she started shouting when water touched her private part.
“Inspite of the prosecutrix age, she demonstrated to the court, repeated how the defendant defiled her and said in her evidence said ‘ uncle Michael touched my bumbum and he jumped on me.’
“The defence, in its final written address argued that the prosecutrix was coached but the evidence before this court does not show this.
”The defendant in his evidence said that he was alone with the prosecutrix on the day of the incident and this also corroborated the evidence of the mother that on Sept. 27, 2019, the driver solely brought her child home at 6.00 p.m. as against the 3.00 p.m. which she usually return home.”
Oshodi also said the medical examination revealed recently repeated blunt force penetration of the vagina.
