The Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Friday sentenced a butcher, Jelili Moshood, to 14 years’ imprisonment for attempting to rape a 78-year-old woman who had dementia.

Mr Moshood was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment by Justice Rahman Oshodi following his plea bargain agreement to attempted sexual assault by penetration.

Mr Oshodi held that he considered the facts of the case and the plea bargain agreement reached between the prosecution and the defence.

He added that he considered the convict’s guilty plea to the amended charge of attempt to commit sexual assault by penetration.

Consequently, the court convicted Mr Moshood and sentenced him, as agreed in the plea bargain, to commence on January 2, 2019, the date of his remand.

The judge said the facts established in the case were that the convict, under the guise of helping, isolated the vulnerable 78-year-old woman suffering from dementia and proceeded to assault her, causing her physical injury and trauma sexually.

He said, “The victim’s impact has been severe; though the victim has since passed away, one can only imagine the fear, anguish, and suffering inflicted upon her in the final months of her life by the convict’s heinous actions.

“Her family will have to live with that painful reality, and this sentence considers the convict’s guilty plea and the sparing of the victim’s family from the ordeal of testifying in court.

“However, it must also send a clear deterrent message that sexual violence against society’s most vulnerable will be met with severe consequences.”

Mr Oshodi said the agreed 14 years sentence reflected the egregious breach of trust, the physical and emotional harm caused, and the need to protect the public from the convict, who would be registered as a sex offender.

The Lagos State government had initially charged the convict with rape, and the medical report and the result of the medical examination were received in evidence as Exhibit F.

It revealed documented physical trauma and forceful penetration of the victim’s vagina.

The court had held that the preceding factual matrix was distilled from the testimonies of one ASP Babatunde Asifat, Prosecution Witness One (PW1), and one Insp. Olakunle Orebe, Prosecution Witness Two (PW2), and the defendant’s confessional statement (Exhibit B1).

The court had also held that the extensive cross-examination by the learned defence counsel did not unearth any contradiction of PW1’s evidence.

The judge said that instead, it strengthened it.

“Seeing the strong evidence against him and after PW2 had given his evidence-in-chief, the defendant applied to the Hon. Attorney-General of Lagos State for a plea bargain through his counsel, Mr Yusuf  Oyebanji,” the court held.

The state counsel, Bukola Okeowo, had on May 31 informed the court that the parties had entered a plea and sentence agreement dated and filed on May 30.

The convict’s charge was, thereafter, changed from rape to attempt to commit sexual assault by penetration, which contravened section 262 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2015.

(NAN)