Bayelsa State High Court sitting in Sagbama has sentenced a 21-year-old man, Timiondu Jephtath, to 10 years in prison for raping a five-year-old girl to death.
The defendant raped the girl in 2016 in Akede Township, Sagbama State Government District. It was found that the then 16-year-old Jephtath dumped her lifeless body in an abandoned fish pond near his residence.
A gender lawyer, Deme Pamosoo, who acted as counsel to the victim’s parents, arranged for the victim’s body to be recovered, a police autopsy and a watertight file submitted to the Department of Justice for the director of the public became law enforcement recommendation for the process.
The presiding judge, Judge EG Omukoro, stated in his ruling in the suit with number SHC/4C/2016 that the indictment was due to the inability to prosecute to prove intent To commit murder.
In his ruling, Judge Omukoro, after examining the defendant’s reason for assignment, stated that the court would take into account the defendant’s youth, who could be redeemed and redeem his actions through atonements.
He, therefore, ordered the defendant to be detained at the Okaka Correctional Center in Yenagoa, or elsewhere as the governor decides, for a period of 10 years at the discretion of the state.
