The Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has sentenced a former teacher, Nwatu Isaac, to life imprisonment for defiling an eight-year-old pupil in the toilet of El-Bossaa Nursery and Primary School, Epe.
Justice Rahman Oshodi, in a judgment delivered on Tuesday, found Isaac guilty of defiling the girl on March 10, 2022, holding that the prosecution had proved the offence beyond reasonable doubt.
The court also ordered that Isaac’s name be entered in the Sex Offenders Register in accordance with Sections 33 and 38 of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency Law 2021.
Isaac was prosecuted under Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, which prescribes life imprisonment for anyone who has unlawful sexual intercourse with a child.
The judge held that the prosecution established the two essential ingredients of the offence: that the victim was a child and that the convict had sexual intercourse with her.
Justice Oshodi rejected Isaac’s denial that he went beyond the school gate on the day of the incident.
The convict had claimed that he went to the school to pick up pupils he conveyed on his motorcycle but remained at the gate.
The judge, however, held that Isaac’s own evidence placed him at the school at the material time, while the victim identified him as the person who took her into the toilet.
The court also rejected his defence of alibi, noting that Isaac did not claim to have been somewhere else when the offence occurred.
“On the convict’s own admission, he was not at a considerable distance from the scene. He was at its gate,” the judge held.
“The prosecutrix’s evidence places him inside the premises. The defence of alibi therefore does not avail him.”
Justice Oshodi found the testimony of the victim, who was nine when she testified, credible and consistent.
He said the girl gave a “clear, detailed and coherent account” of how Isaac, whom she knew as “Master Isaac,” took her into the school toilet and sexually assaulted her.
The judge noted that the victim identified Isaac in court and that her account remained consistent despite lengthy cross-examination.
The court also found corroboration in the evidence of the girl’s mother, who testified that she saw blood on her daughter’s underwear and vagina shortly after she returned home from school.
Justice Oshodi further relied on the evidence of a medical doctor who examined the girl at the Mirabel Centre.
According to the judge, the doctor found an easily dilatable introitus, an absent hymen, and marked laxity of the anal sphincter, with the vaginal findings consistent with penile penetration.
The judge rejected the defence argument that the absence of DNA or sperm testing weakened the prosecution’s case, holding that the medical evidence corroborated the evidence of penetration.
Justice Oshodi also dismissed the defence claim that the child could have been sexually abused by her stepsister, describing the suggestion as speculation.
The court similarly rejected an audio recording tendered by the defence in which a teacher claimed the child later said the incident was a dream.
Justice Oshodi noted that the teacher had admitted responding, “No, it can’t,” when the child initially told her that the allegation was true, before questioning her until she denied the incident.
The judge held that the child’s subsequent statement could not be regarded as free or reliable.
The court also rejected a survey report tendered by the defence to suggest that the school toilet was too small for the alleged offence to have occurred there.
Justice Oshodi said the survey was conducted more than three years after the incident, during the pendency of the proceedings, at the instance of the convict.
He further noted that defence witnesses gave conflicting evidence about the number of toilets in the school, while the surveyor could not establish whether the toilet he measured was the same one referred to in the allegation.
The court also rejected the defence’s claim that the prosecution was motivated by tribal sentiment because Isaac is Igbo.
Justice Oshodi noted that there was no evidence of previous hostility between Isaac and the victim’s family. He added that the victim’s mother had previously presented Isaac with a gift after he taught her daughter.
The judge held that the prosecution had established its case beyond reasonable doubt.
“Therefore, I find that on 10 March 2022, in the male toilet of El-Bossaa Nursery and Primary School, the convict had sexual intercourse with the prosecutrix by penetrating her vagina with his penis. The second ingredient has been proved beyond reasonable doubt,” the judge held.
The court consequently convicted Isaac of defilement.
During sentencing, Justice Oshodi said Isaac had abused the trust placed in him by the child and her family.
The judge noted that Isaac was once the girl’s teacher and that parents in the community also entrusted their children to him for transportation on his motorcycle.
He held that Isaac had exploited that trust to lure the child into the toilet and commit the offence.
Justice Oshodi also noted that Isaac had denied the offence throughout the proceedings and sought to attribute the prosecution to tribal sentiment.
The judge said the court had a duty to protect children and make clear that sexual abuse of children would attract the full force of the law.
The court consequently sentenced Isaac to life imprisonment.
Justice Oshodi further directed the prosecution to take immediate steps under the Victim Assistance and Witness Protection Law 2022 to secure whatever protection and support the victim and her family required.
The order followed a complaint by the victim’s mother during the sentencing hearing that staff of El-Bossaa Nursery and Primary School had allegedly continued to intimidate her and the victim in Epe.
The judge, however, expressly stated that the court made no finding on the complaint.
The prosecution was led by Inumidun Solarin, with B.E. Okeowo and I.E. Balogun, while Anthony O. Agadah represented Isaac.
E.I. Ukpabio held a watching brief for the nominal complainant.
