A school bus driver, identified as Michael Mowete, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for defiling a three-year-old girl, name withheld, News About Nigeria reports.
The suspect was sentenced by Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Tuesday.
The Judge noted that the prosecution proved, beyond reasonable doubt, the charge of defilement against the school bus driver.
Oshodi said that the statement of the suspect that he was having a relationship with the mother of the victim does not hold water.
According to him, the prosecution gave direct evidence as the survivor, despite her age, narrated to the court how the convict defiled her.
The judge also stated that 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.
“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.
“The mother of the prosecutrix (survivor), in her evidence said that on Sept. 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,” Justice Oshodi stated.
He further noted that the medical examination revealed recently repeated blunt force penetration of the vagina, adding that the defendant’s reliance on MTN call log as a means of of sexual communication between himself and the survivor’s mother could not be established because no evidence was produced in regards to the call log conversation.
Oshodi consequently sentenced Mowete to life imprisonment at the Maximum Correctional Centre and ordered that his name be registered in the Lagos State Sexual Offences Register.
