Justice Abiola Soladoye of the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Wednesday convicted and sentenced a 35-year-old music teacher and counsellor of Lachez O International School, Anthony Okeh, to life imprisonment for defiling a nine-year-old JSS 1 student (name withheld).
The judge in her judgement held that the prosecution was able to discharge the burden of proof of the charge of defilement against Okeh.
Her Lordship described Okeh as a “pathological liar”, “everything a teacher should not be” by having unlawful sexual intercourse with his pupil, and “a soulless man without any iota of shame.”
Justice Soladoye said the case was direct evidence as the survivor was in court to narrate her sexual ordeals in the hands of her music teacher, a sexual predator.
According to her, the evidence of the survivor was lucid, cogent, unequivocal, and compelling, and the denial of the convict did not hold water.
The judge said: “To the mind of this court, the denial of the defendant 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 evidence is devoid of truth, and they are tainted witnesses.
“Cases are not won on the number of witnesses presented to testify before the court but on the quality of evidence adduced that is credible, convincing and compelling.”
The court also held that the survivor in her testimony had narrated how the convict called her upstairs into the music room, where he showed her different nude pictures, claimed to be a cultist and threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone.
Soladoye said: “The survivor recognised the man in the box as her music teacher who defiled her more than two times in the music room.
“The testimony of the investigative police officer was corroborated by the testimony of the survivor when she said that the mother of the girl noticed her reluctant 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.
“Statement of the nominal complainant was admitted into evidence.”
The court thereafter convicted Okeh of the one-count charge of defilement and consequently sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The Punch
