Justice Abiola Soladoye of a Lagos Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, Ikeja, yesterday, discharged and acquitted a 46-year-old security guard, Victor Godwin, of alleged defilement of a 14-year-old girl.
The judge, while delivering judgment, held that the prosecution failed to prove the required ingredients of defilement against the defendant.
The prosecution had alleged that his offence contravenes Section 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2015.
However, in her judgment, Justice Soladoye held that the court was unable to determine the age of the alleged survivor and that she was not in court to give evidence.
“The girl in question was not produced by the prosecution to give her ordeal before the court. The Investigative Police Officer (IPO) was the only witness that testified and she cannot cry more than the bereaved.
“What is important in this case is the evidence adduced and the evidence of the IPO, as far as this court is concerned, is of no momentum as the victim, who should have been here physically to tell her story and speak up, was not presented before this court.
“The IPO had testified before this court that the alleged survivor and her mother reported that the defendant, sometime in September 2017, followed the girl on her way to buy something and dragged her inside to have unlawful sexual intercourse with her,” the court said.
The court held that the prosecution did not prove the case of defilement against the defendant and therefore discharged and acquitted him.
