By Mohamed Foday Conteh
A 17-year-old SSS III pupil has testified before Justice Momoh-Jah Stevens of how her father had sex with her multiple times last year in Kambia district, North-Western Sierra Leone and got her pregnant.
The girl was led in evidence by State Prosecutor, Jesse Tucker as she testified against her father Mohamed Conteh on Wednesday 13 October this year at the Sexual Offences Model Court in Freetown.
Conteh was arraigned in court for incest contrary to the Sexual Offences Act of 2012 as amended, but denied the allegations levied against him by the prosecution.
The State is alleging that the father between the 1st January 2017 and 31st August 2021 engaged in an act of incest with her daughter multiple times in Freetown, Lungi and Kambia.
The girl as witness told the court that the accused is her biological father who first attempted to have sex with her at their then Juba Hill residence, Lumley in Freetown. She said that the act ensued after her father pretended to make peace with her over his estranged attitude towards her.
She added that the father used a towel which he placed on the bed when he first approached her for sex. The child said he did not directly penetrate her on the first day, but sexually harassed her.
The witness said that there were occasions when her father would write on a piece of paper ‘BE READY FOR ME’ before leaving the house in the morning. She said that that was so because her father used to sexually abuse her at night though without directly penetrating her virginal.
The girl informed the court that her father continued to abuse her even when they moved to another area in Lumley but she was scared to inform her elder sister one Mariama and her father’s younger brother, Musa who were also living with them.
She said that she however decided to tell her uncle Musa about her father’s act. She said Musa later confronted his brother who in turn reacted furiously by throwing both of them out of the house. She said that it was her aunt (father’s younger sister) that came to their aid by taking her to the Lumley Police Station after she learnt of what had transpired between her and her father. But her aunt never took her for medical examination as directed by the Police or ever reported again to the Police.
The child witness said that the aunt returned her to the father because she was about to take her Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). She said that when she returned her father told her that she had a dream about her being a witch and took her to a church at Kamayama Lumley for deliverance where she was forced to observe ‘seven days dry fast’ during which she ate nothing for the entire week.
The teenage girl said that she was later taken to her cousins at Hagan Street where she was also accused of being a witch. She said that gave her father the opportunity to take her to a herbalist named Pa Lamina in Lungi. She said that the father left and neglected her while she was at Pa Lamina’s place. She said that the father only visited when he brought a goat and other assorted items that were requested by the herbalist for her healing. She said that it was at Lungi that his father first penetrated her at a hotel when she went to collect the items bought for her alleged healing.
The 17-year-old said that she was later returned to Hagan Street in Freetown to stay with her cousins but that she was also accused again of being a witch. She said her dad later decided to take her to Kambia district to another herbalist who she said cured her late elder sister from alleged witchcraft.
She said that her father also left her there and was almost in a dejected condition until her grandfather rescued her. But again Conteh later returned to Kambia, took his daughter to a hotel just outside Kambia town and sexually penetrated her. She said the sexual abuse continued when she moved in to stay with him at the said hotel for seven months. The child said that it was while she was at the hotel that she got pregnant by her father.
According to the child, the father attempted to give her syrup which she refused to take. He accused his dad of brutally beating her up until she lost consciousness which led to police intervention. She said she was later brought to the Aberdeen Women Centre in Freetown where she had a stillbirth.
During cross-examination by counsel for the accused, Cecil Campbell, the child told the court that she has no birth certificate. She said that she only knew her father when she turned five years old. The matter continues today 15 October 2021 with more witnesses to testify.
Copyright © Politico Online 15/10/21
