Man Gets 17 Years For Child Assault
A Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court sitting in Ikeja has sentenced Sunday Okoronwo, age 39 years, to 17 years’ imprisonment for sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault.
Justice Rahman Oshodi convicted the defendant of a two-count amended charge brought against him by the prosecution, B. E. Okeowo and sentenced him.
The convict was accused of defilement of a 7-year-old girl (names withheld). The defendant had earlier pleaded not guilty when arraigned on November 19 2021, and re-arraigned on an amended charge on October 28, 2024, also pleaded not guilty.
But pleaded guilty when arraigned on an amended two-count charge bordering on an attempt to commit sexual assault by penetration of a child and sexual assault by fondling her breast.
He pleaded guilty.
The judge asked the defendant whether he understood the contents of his guilty plea and the obligation of the court to give out the maximum sentences on the charges.
Sunday admitted he made the plea bargain voluntarily and was satisfied by the advice of his counsel. He admitted and pleaded guilty.
Earlier, during resumed proceedings, the judge told the court that the prosecution had already called three witnesses as regard to the case. The survivor PW1, the survivor mother PW2 and the IPO PW3.
Survivor told the court that the convict, Sunday, told her to help him purchase puff puff after she delivered the puff puff to his residence. The defendant instructed her to remove her pants, which she refused to do, but the defendant forcefully grabbed her to the floor and penetrated her viagina.
“The defendant said I should remove my cloth; I did not remove it; I stood, I held the puff puff. The defendant forced me to remove my cloth and put his penis in my bum bum,” she said
The survivor confirmed to the court that she was 7 years old and identified the defendant as her grandmother’s neighbor.
Delivering judgment in the matter, Justice Oshodi held that the survivor’s mother told the court that the survivor was 7 years old at the time the incident occurred in 2018and also provided critical evidence regarding her actions following the incident, including medical examination. She further said that on Sunday, the defendant had confessed to defiling the survivor.
The judge also held that the IPO provided additional corroborating evidence by tendering the defendant’s confessional statement; the defendant wrote
“I’m very sorry, and if I’m forgiven, I will not do such again; I’m asking for forgiveness from man and God”.
Prosecutor B. E. Okeowo informed the court that both parties had entered a plea and sentence agreement. The counsel also informed the court that the plea bargain required filing an amended charge.
Defence counsel Bello Ibrahim Olaoluwa said, “We apply for a plea bargain for the defendant and beg the court to grant the plea bargain.”
Okeowo urged the court to sentence the convict according to the plea bargain agreement.
Oshodi sentenced the convict to 14 years on the first count of attempts to commit sexual assault by penetration of a child and to three years on count two for sexual assault.
He said: “The sentences are to run concurrently and not consecutively.
The judge ordered the convict to be returned to the Ikoyi Custodial Center and for his name to be included in the Lagos State Sexual Offenders Register.
