MANDERA, Kenya, Nov 23- A National Police Reservist (NPR) found guilty of defiling a seventeen-year-old girl will serve fifteen years’ imprisonment.
Hussein Ibrahim Hassan was sent to jail by Mandera Senior Resident Magistrate Mukabi Kimani.
He had been charged that on June 29, 2020, he defiled a girl aged 17 and identified as J.H by the courts.
He also faced an alternative charge of committing an indecent act with a minor.
While delivering the judgment, Kimani said that it was his findings that the accused had correctly been identified as the assailant who defiled the complainant.
On the fateful day, the accused is reported to have accosted the complainant within Mandera town and took her to his house.
J.H told the court during the trial that she was walking in the town when the accused accosted her and forcefully held her hand and took her to a house within the town.
At the time, the accused was donning a police uniform and had a firearm.
“He took me to a house and pushed me over a bed and locked the door. He undressed and defiled me before leaving. He locked me inside,” J.H told the court.
She said after the accused left, she screamed and neighbours came for her rescue.
She said she feared raising the alarm in presence of the accused since he was armed.
A neighbour to the accused told the court that she heard distress calls from the house belonging to the accused.
“I found a crowd and the accused arrived in police uniform and unlocked the house. This girl walked out and claimed that she was defiled,” the witness told the court.
An auntie to J.H said the victim had left home in the morning to visit her parents on the other side of Mandera town but she received a call in the evening informing her of the unfortunate event.
J.H was treated at the Mandera County Referral Hospital but a police officer investigating the case complained of interference by the medical staff at the facility.
One Dr. Ahmed stationed at Mandera County Referral Hospital was arrested and charged for the offence of interfering with evidence under a criminal case number 199 of 2020.
The doctor had filled the P3 forms indicating it was a case of attempted defilement and proceeded to fill the ‘male part’ (section) of the P3 form yet the victim was a female.
Another form filled earlier indicated the J.H had been defiled and Nahashon Marieta, a nurse at the facility confirmed the same.
He said together with colleagues they examined the victim and confirmed defilement.
In Defence, the accused denied committing the offence and protested the court’s decision to admit the evidence by a nurse and not a doctor.
While determining the case, Kimani noted that it was undisputed that the victim was a child aged 17 years old.
“It is my finding that the complainant was 17 years old when the offence was committed and the medical evidence adduced was not discredited by the accused,” he said.
Whether the victim had defiled or not the accused, the trial magistrate relayed on the medical report and the victim’s presentation in court.
“I had an opportunity to see the demeanour of the complainant during trial. She broke down in tears several times while recounting this heinous ordeal. She was asked to step down from the witness box to enable her to cool down,” he said.
Mr Kimani concluded that the prosecution evidence was cogent and corroborated and was not shaken by the defence in whatever way that indeed it was the accused who defiled the complainant.
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