Music teacher bags life imprisonment for defiling 9-year-old pupil
An Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court sentenced Anthony Okeh, aged 35, a music teacher and counsel, to life imprisonment for defiling a nine-year-old girl, a JSS 1 pupil (name withheld), on Wednesday, May 21.
The State counsel, Miss Abimbola Abolade, called two witnesses; the survivor and an investigative police officer, while the defence called four other witnesses.
Records show from Abolade’s oral submission before the court that the convict committed the offence on the 6th of September, 2022, at Lachez O International School, Agege, Lagos.Justice Abiola Soladoye in her judgment held that the prosecution had discharged its burden of proof of the charges of defilement against Okeh.
According to her judgment, Okeh is an absolutely soulless man, without any form of shame, and everything a teacher should not be, for having unlawful sexual intercourse with his pupil.Justice Soladoye said the case was direct evidence for the survivor was in court to give an account of her sexual ordeals at the hands of the music teacher.
She went on to say that the evidence of the survivor was clear and compelling, and the denial of the convict was of no value.
To the mind of this court, the denial of the convict is a form to distance himself from the crime.The convict is a pathological liar whose evidence is an afterthought, and I do not believe him at all.I do not believe the other three defence witnesses as well because their evidences were devoid of truth, and they were tainted witnesses.
Cases are not won on the number of witnesses presented to testify before the court concerned itself with those aspects relating to the quality of evidence which must hold credible, convincing, and compelling,” the judge said.
The judge then went on to highlight how the survivor in her testimony had narrated how the convict had called her upstairs into the music room where he showed her various nude pictures, claimed to be a cultist, and threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone.
“The survivor recognised the man in the dock as her music teacher who defiled her more than twice in the music room.
“The testimony of the Investigative Police Officer (IPO) is corroborated by that of the survivor in that the mother of the girl noticed her reluctance to go to school, and she later confessed to her mother what the convict had been doing to her.
The IPO said that the mother of the survivor (nominal complainant) reported the case to the police.
“The statement of the nominal complainant was admitted as evidence,” the judge explained.
She therefore convicted Okeh of one count of defilement and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Soladoye further ordered that the convict’s name be entered in the Lagos State Sexual Offences Register.
She said, “All stakeholders in the administration of criminal justice must forge a strong collaboration in the fight against sexual violence offences so that the dignity, mental health, physical and psychological trauma of survivors in such cases are safeguarded.”
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