By Isata Fofanah
Court of Appeal Judge presiding over cases at the Sexual Offences Model Court in Freetown, Honourable Justice Komba Kamanda has sentenced 30-year-old Labourer, Moseray Kamara to 20 years imprisonment after being found guilty of sexually penetrating a 7-year-old child.
The accused was before the Court to answer to one count indictment of Sexual Penetration contrary to Section 19 of the Sexual Offences Act 2012, Act No. 12 of 2012, as repealed and replaced by Section 4 (a) (ii) of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2019, Act No. 8 of 2019.
The accused, upon his arraignment denied the allegation. State Prosecutor, Yusuf I. Sesay, made an application for trial by Judge alone to expedite the case. His application was granted by Hon. Justice Kamanda.
During the course of the trial, the Prosecution relied on the evidence of five witnesses including the child victim.
In her testimony, the 7-year-old said she knew the accused and recalled that on the 7th of September 2021, the accused sexually penetrated her and threatened to kill her if she reported anything of that nature.
Since she couldn’t withstand the traumatic situation she later told her mother about what had happened, the matter was reported to the police and she was later taken to the hospital for medical examination.
At the close of the Prosecution’s case, the accused denied the allegation and did not call any witness other than mere denial.
In his judgment, Hon. Justice Komba Kamanda said, ” I hold that in this case, the Prosecution have proved their case beyond reasonable doubt, the accused was identified but all he did was to merely deny the allegation which is not sufficient to prove his innocence.”
He stressed that the accused was guilty as charged and sentenced him to twenty (20) years imprisonment.
Also, in another related matter, Justice Kamanda discharged a 50-year-old Security Guard, Bockarie Kanneh of the offence of Sexual Penetration for want of Prosecution.
Kanneh was alleged to have on the 4th day of February 2022 harboured a 16-year-old girl for three days, during which time he sexually penetrated her.
(n his judgment, Hon. Justice Komba Kamanda said, ” I hold that in this case, the Prosecution have proved their case beyond reasonable doubt, the accused was identified but all he did was to merely deny the allegation which is not sufficient to prove his innocence.”- The Calabash
Wow! While it is a pathetic situation for any woman, and in particular for a minor to go through such traumatic ordeal, it is important that as a nation in these times of technological advancement, that we up our burden of proof from mere witness identification to scientific identification including DNA which is irrefutable, accurate and ensures that the right person is convicted for all crime that involves crimes against the persons such as rape. Why am I saying this? It is based on lessons learnt from other jurisdictions where people have been sentence to long term imprisonments or even death penalties based on human identification only to be refuted years later after the fact by DNA. In such a situation no amount of compensation or remorse from the society can remedy the wrongful conviction. In this instance , I am not in any way saying that the accused is wrongfully convicted. He is convicted based on our current burden of proof
All I am saying is that as a country may be we should invest a little bit into these technological advancements to help our legal system.