By Ayodele Popoola

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An Akure High Court has convicted and sentenced a 17-year-old boy, Jibola Fakologbon, to 14 years imprisonment for assaulting and raping a student.

Justice Yemi Fasanmi handed down the judgment on the convict after he found him guilty of the offence.

The judge held that the prosecution was able to prove its case of indecent assault and rape against the convict beyond reasonable doubt and that all the evidence before the court corroborated that of the victim.

Fakologbon was arraigned on December 2021, on two counts bordering on assault and rape, which he pleaded not guilty.

The prosecuting counsel, D.G. Kayode told the court that the convict on March 11, at about 5 pm at Ero via Igbara-Oke, indecently assaulted a lady (name withheld), who is a student of Ero College of Education, by touching her breast and giving her bodily harm.

The convict at the same place and time, was also alleged of having unlawful sexual intercourse with the victim without her consent.

The offences, according to the prosecution, contravened Sections 60, 358 of the Criminal Code of Ondo State, 2016.

During the trial, the prosecution called three witnesses and tendered six exhibits which included the defendant’s and victim’s extra-judicial statements, the torn underwear of the victim, and a medical report, while the convict testified as a sole witness.

In her evidence before the court, the victim testified that on her way to her house on the day of the incident, the defendant accosted her and demanded money from her for food, but she refused to give him.

” I did not know the boy. He waylaid me on my way to my house and asked for N100. l refused to give him and immediately he tried to forcefully touch my breast. While struggling with him, he hit me with a stick on the head and I was unconscious.

“ He carried me with my bag to an uncompleted building, tore my underwear, and had sexual intercourse with me.

“ While trying to shout at the top of my voice, the defendant covered my mouth and left my stomach and vaginal wounded,” she narrated.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Fasanmi, expressed satisfaction that the victim’s testimony that Fakologbon assaulted and had sexual intercourse with her was corroborated by medical reports and another exhibit before the court.

The judge held: “There is ample evidence before the court that the defendant forcefully touched the victim’s breast and that she was sexually penetrated by the convict.

“The evidence is believable, unassailable, and credible that the victim tried to resist the convict rigorously.”

He further noted that the convict had confessed that he touched, physically assaulted, and tore the underwear of the victim.

 “ It is considered an abomination and not accepted in any community in Nigeria for a man to forcefully touch the breast of a woman.

“ The fact that the convict confirmed that he refused to rape the victim when he noticed the wound on her belly and exhibit 6 (medical report) which shows that the vulva of the victim in examination sustained injury, copiously corroborated that the victim was raped.

“The court found Fakologbon guilty of both crimes,” the judge held.

Fasanmi sentenced the convict to two years imprisonment for the offence of indecent assault and 12 years imprisonment for the offence of rape respectively.

“A total of 14 years imprisonment shall commence from the convict’s first day in custody. The sentences shall run concurrently,”he concluded.