40 years old Pastor Uche Arua Kalu, has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment without an option of fine for defiling a four-year-old girl, in a Magistrate court sitting in Umuahia North, on Friday.
Madam Ugo Obasi, a widow who happens to be the mother of victim during her statement said that the defendant is someone close to the family. She narrated how she had gone to work the day of the incident when the defendant lured her daughter to his house and defiled her.
On getting back, she said she saw her innocent child very ill and she wouldn’t walk properly. When she was continually asked, the victim whose name is withheld opened up to her mother.
However, when the defendant was confronted, he was unrepentant untill the grandfather of the victim involved the police and took him to court.
His Worship Onuoha U.C. passed his judgement after the defendant who hails from Amaogudu Abiriba, in Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State, where the incident also happened, pleaded guilty to the crimes.
After his admittance to his crime however, during the hearing, the defendant denied knowing anything about the charges leveled against. When ASP Iweajunwa, the investigating officer was called to present facts, he was able to establish the case.
Meanwhile, Chinedu Ikpa Esq., the prosecuting counsel, from the State Criminal Investigation Department, Umuahia, sounded a note of reminder to the court about the defendant’s earlier plea where he stated that he did not know what came over him.
He further reminded the court that for a case as such to be proved; the victim must be a minor, the consent of the minor would not be relevant, the accused must have had sex with the minor.
Following undisputed facts by the investigating officer and the prosecuting counsel, the defendant fell on his knees and pleaded the court to have mercy on him and asked for reduced sentence as he feared life imprisonment which is the right punishment for the charge against him. Section 7(1)(2) of the Violence Against Persons’ Prohibition Law 2019.
His plea was heard and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison with no option for fine.
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