By MN Reporter
The Rongo Principal Magistrate Court sentenced a man for life for defiling his 11 years old niece who is an orphan.
Principal Magistrate Raymond Langat in the judgment said Lameck Ochieng’ from Kameji village was positively identified by the minor during the December 13, 2020 offence.
Ochieng was charged with a count of defiling the minor and an alternative charge of having an indecent act with a child when he led his niece into a maize plantation where he defiled her and threatened her not to disclose the happening to anyone.
The minor told her mother, a widow, who later reported the matter to area assistant chief.
She was examined on the same day and it was found that the hymen was freshly broken and there was bleeding.
The court found that the penetration was proved by the prosecution, as a birth certificate had been produced before the court to prove her age.
Five witnesses who had been lined up testified in the case as the accused placed on his defense upon the closure of the case.
“Having considered the nature and circumstances of the offense, and the time the accused person has spent in prison and his mitigation, what is in record is that the accused person is the angle of the complainant,” Langat said.
Langat in his judgment noted that the accused was supposed to be guardian of the minor but he decided to prey on the minor.
Ochieng in his mitigation pleaded with the court to grant him a low sentence because he was an orphan and had a young family depending on him.
“The main count of defilement was proved on the required standard. Although the accused person mitigates that he has a young family, the offense in question is grave and he deserves no mercy,” Langat judged.