A security guard, Ismalia Adamu, has been sent to prison on Monday by Justice Abiola Soladoye of the Domestic and Sexual Offences Court, Ikeja, for indecent treatment of a five-year-old girl (name withheld).
The judgement was delivered following the successful prosecution of the defendant.
The trial judge convicted and sentenced the defendant to seven years’ imprisonment on a one-count charge of indecent treatment of a child.
Giving the verdict, “Your indecent exposure of your manhood before a child is an indecent behaviour.
The defendant was arraigned by the Lagos State Government on March 15, 2023, the defendant pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge of indecent treatment of a child and sexual assault, offences that contravene Sections 135 and 263 (1) & (2) of Criminal Law Ch. C17, Vol. 3, Laws of Lagos State, 2015 respectively.
Security guard guilty of indecent treatment of a child
However, the court found the defendant guilty on count 1; indecent treatment of a child (ejaculating sperm on the survivor’s body) but dismissed the count 2; sexual assault because the medical test did not prove penetration.
The State Prosecutor, Bukola Okeowo, told the court that the convict committed the offence on June 25, 2021, at Atan Road, Surulere, Lagos.
According to the survivor, who testified when she was eight years old and in Basic Four, that the incident occurred when her mother asked her to go and buy noodles, as well as call Ismalia to come and help them fetch some water.
She told the court that when she entered his room, he removed her pant, removed his own pant, put her on the bed and lay on top of her. She said she told him that if he didn’t stop, she would tell her mother, and he stopped.
The State Prosecution had earlier called three witnesses, including the girl’s mother who testified on how the convict removed the minor’s pant and laid on her.
The judge held that “The survivor was truthful, she was direct, and she kept to what she had said.
The court convicted and sentenced the defendant to seven years’ imprisonment and ordered that the sentences should begin on June 30, 2021, when he was first remanded in Kirikiri correctional centre.
Justice Soladoye also ordered that his name be registered in the sex offender’s register of Lagos State.
