LAGOS BARBER BAGS NINE YEARS JAIL TERM OVER SEXUAL ASSAULT OF TEENAGE GIRL

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By Aishat Momoh. O.

An Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court has sentenced a 30-year-old barber, Rasaq Akinyemi to nine years in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.

Justice Rahman Oshodi sentenced Akinyemi after he pleaded guilty to the amended two-count count charge of indecent treatment of a child and sexual assault.

Oshodi, while delivering the judgment, held that the offences which Akinyemi had entered a plea bargain agreement with was a serious offences that had caused significant harm to the young survivor who trusted him as a family member.

He, however, said that the convict had expressed genuine remorse for his actions.

The judge said: “You have explained while in custody that you have made commendable efforts to rehabilitate yourself, learning the trade of barbing and pursuing your studies.

“Your active participation in the muslim society, where you serve as one of the imams, demonstrates your attempt to reform and maintain a spiritual connection.

“Your expression that you ‘do not want to be useless’ but rather ‘want to be useful’ to society shows insight into the need for personal transformation.

“The prosecution has rightly emphasised the aggravating factor that you were in a position of trust as a relative to the victim.”

The court further held that it has carefully weighed all factors, including the severity of the offences, breach of trust, guilty plea, genuine remorse and concrete steps toward rehabilitation.

“I am persuaded to order that you serve 90 per cent of the agreed- upon ten-year sentence, which is nine years.

“Accordingly, I sentence you to seven years imprisonment on count one and two years on count two.

“The sentences shall run consecutively for nine years, computed from 26 June 2020, when you were first remanded in custody,” Oshodi said.

The court further ordered that the the convict’s name be registered in the sexual offences register of Lagos State.

Akinyemi was earlier arraigned on a two-count charge of defilement and indecent treatment of a child which he had pleaded not to following his arraignment on Nov. 27, 2021.

The State Counsel Ms Olufunmilayo Aluko

called two witnesses; a medical officer and an investigative police officer through whom confessional statement of the convict was tendered and it was not objected by defence.

Aluko told the court that the convict committed the offence on June 25 2020, at No.13 Shiaba St., Agege, Lagos.

She submitted that the convict in decently treated the survivor by taking off her clothes and looking at her private part.

The prosecutor had on Jan. 30 informed the court that the parties had entered a plea and sentence agreement dated and filed on Jan. 28.

According to the prosecutor, the offences violate Sections 135 and 263 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015