By Abass Jalloh
Justice Monfred Sesay of High Court No. 2 in Freetown has sentenced 35-year-old Lahai Kamara to 31 years imprisonment after he was unanimously found guilty by a 10-member jury of sexually penetrating and murdering a 4-year-old girl, Amma Mensah.
The convict, Kamara, a building contractor of 41 Bendembu, Upper Goderich Street, Freetown, was charged with one count of Murder.
The prosecution alleged that the accused on the 28th June 2017 murdered Amma at his work place, near the victim's residence.
When arraigned for judgement on Monday November 2nd, the convict asked the judge for mercy and nothing else.
The defense counsel, R. S. Bangura, in his plea of mitigation stated that the 35-year-old had now regretted his actions and learned his lesson in the period of the trial after his arrest in 2017.
He stated that there is the law that protects children as well as adult. “Nobody has the right to take away the life of another. Such actions are punishable by law,” he said.
Lawyer Bangura added that the prosecution was “very calculated in bringing the bit of evidence”. Therefore, he pleaded with the judge to temper justice with mercy in favor of the convict, asking for a minimal sentence, considering the period he had taken at the correctional center.
In response, the prosecutor, A. Jalloh, directly stated that having considered the nature and circumstances in this case leading to the death of the 4-year-old, he recommended 60 years jail term.
“We have to consider as well the victim, what she went through at early age of hers; there is every likelihood if he had tempered justice with mercy with the victim at that material time, we would have had Mensah 9 years,” he added.
Having listened to the applications, Justice Sesay expressed that “it is a harrowing story” and sentenced the convict to 31 years imprisonment, including the time spent in custody.
Prior to the verdict, reading out the summary of facts of the evidence as presented before the court, Justice Sesay explained to the jurors that the deceased disappeared from her home at about 5 p.m. in which she was reported to have been taken to a nearby stream, adding that the accused was reported to have disappeared on the same day and almost the same stated time.
The body of the little Amma was found at Upper Bendembu (by Guma pipe) two days after she had disappeared (30th June 2017), the judge said, adding that the body was brought “decomposed” while the police reported to have found two empty damaged cement bags covering the private parts of the deceased and that the body was lying on two dried sticks.
Justice Sesay stated that the convict was arrested on the 4th July 2017 but “denied ever knowing the deceased before her death".
The police visited the house of the accused on the 5th July to execute a search warrant and during the course of the search, the police discovered the pile of sticks at the house, similar to the ones the deceased was lying on, according to the judge, adding that in the room of the accused the police said they smelled something like the odor of decomposing flesh and that they found oil on the floor which they suspected to be human oil.
During the course of the trial, the prosecution led in evidence four witnesses - the deceased's father, Umaru Conteh; police investigator, Inspector Unissa Tarawalie; Forensic Pathologist, Dr. Simeon Owizz Koroma; and Exhibit Clerk, Alusine Kanu.
In finding out the precise cause of death, the judge stated that the pathologist testified that the deceased died as a result of violence, manual strangulation, and severe and sexual assault.
The prosecution also presented and tendered eight exhibits including the accused's statements, the post mortem report, medical statement of death, eight dried sticks, two empty damaged cement bags, and two pieces of concrete drug at the floor of the accused home.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (04/11/22)
