72-year-old man jailed for life for raping his neighbor’s 7 year-old daughter

An old man in jail [Meta AI]

Source: Africa Publicity

Justice Abiola Soladoye of a Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court in Ikeja has sentenced a 72-year-old security guard, David Jackson, to life imprisonment for defil­ing his neighbor’s seven-year-old daughter. 

The judge sentenced Jack­son to life imprisonment on Monday, July 8, 2024, revealing that the prosecution had proved the three ingredients of defile­ment against him.

Delivering the judgment, Jus­tice Soladoye stated that the sur­vivor was 7-year-old at the time of the incident and during her testimony identified Jackson, a gateman in one of the houses on her street, as her abuser.

The testimony of the sur­vivor was clear, consistent and coherent under cross-examina­tion.
“The second prosecution wit­ness was a teacher who identi­fied that the survivor was her student.

“She testified that one of the survivor’s classmate had report­ed to her that the survivor was not feeling well and she was walking in a funny way.

“The teacher, in her evidence, said that she made inquiry and discovered that the survivor was complaining of pains in her private part and that someone had sexually assaulted her,” the judge said.

Sholadoye also held that the testimony of the survivor’s fa­ther was credible and was also corroborated with the evidence of the other two prosecution wit­nesses.

She indicated that attempts by the convict to deny the charge did not hold waters.

“The defendant is conse­quently found guilty as charged for defilement of a 7-year old child contrary to Section 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2015 and he is hereby sen­tenced to life imprisonment,” she said.

The judge also ordered that the name of the convict be reg­istered in the Sexual Offences Register as maintained by Lagos State Government.

The state Counsel, Ms Abim­bola Abolade called three wit­nesses while the convict testified on his own behalf.

Abolade during trial in­formed the court that the broth­er of the survivor sent her on an errand on the ill fated day.

The prosecutor submitted that the convict committed the offence on May 16, 2022, on Oyedele Close, Ojodu, Berger in Lagos