Moses Richards, Principal Magistrate at the Bundung Magistrate Court, yesterday convicted and sentenced one Ebou Sey, a taxi driver, to life imprisonment for raping a school girl, contrary to Section 122 of the Criminal Code.

According to the particulars of the offence, Ebou Sey, unlawfully had canal knowledge with a nine-year-old student (name withheld) without her consent in KSMD on December 17, last year.

Ebou Sey, who pleaded guilty of the offence, told the court that he came across the girl on her way to school, when he acted “unwisely”. He said he secluded the girl in thick-long grasses, along Kombo Coastal road, where he had canal knowledge with the minor. He then pleaded to the court for mercy.

In his ruling, Principal Magistrate Richards, condemned rape as a “very serious crime” that bears a mandatory sentence on anybody found guilty of the offence committed. He held that rape is a grave offense that also exposes victims to sexually-transmitted diseases (STD).

Presiding Principal Magistrate Richards then sentenced Mr. Sey to life imprisonment at the State Central Prisons in Mile II. During the trial, Police Prosecutor, Corporal 772 Samateh, at the Bundung Prosecution Unit, stood in for the IGP.