By Mohamed Foday Conteh
Mohamed Kamaraimba Mansaray, the accused person in the ongoing sexual penetration trial of a 15-year-old secondary school pupil has on the 8th June 2021 continued his testimony at the Sexual Offences Model Court in Freetown.
Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai, a representative for the defence started with his examination of defence witness 2 seeking the location of Kamaraimba on the 14th February 2020, the day the alleged victim was said to have been penetrated. Mansaray reiterated that he was at Makeni on that day and not in Kono as alleged.
He said he was in Kono on the 16th February 2020 at 3 pm and went with the plumbers and electricians one Johnny Josiah and Desmond Bangura to work at his site in Kono. He said some of them were in his car and some took public transport. Kamarainba also added that he also took a carpenter with him to give an estimate for the roofing of the said hotel.
Kamarainba also alleged that he lodged at the Lion Mountain hotel owned by his girlfriend, Isha Mansaray defence witness 1, during his stay in Kono. He also confirmed that his girlfriend was with him at the hotel during his days in Kono.
Kamarainba continued that he returned to Makeni on the 19th of February 2020 and was there until the 2nd of March 2020. He said the reason for his long stay was because construction was ongoing at his hotel and later left for Bo to oversee the construction of his other building. From Bo he then travelled to Kono on the 18th March 2020.
Kamarainba stated that the reason for his journey to Freetown on the 3rd April 2021 was because he had wanted to secure a pass before the coronavirus lockdown that had been proposed for the 6th April 2020.
It is on record that the alleged victim had testified that he was with the accused sometime in March in Freetown. However, the sequence of event deduced from the testimony put forward by the accused alleged that he only returned to Freetown on April 3rd 2020. That is to say, the accused alleged that the entire period between February to March he was crisscrossing between Kono, Makeni and Bo.
On the day of his arrest, Kamarainba alleged that he only knew of the said crime on social media and that he immediately called the LUC of Tankoro section Police station to enquire as to whether he was wanted for questioning. He said that the LUC told him he would be notified when needed. Mansaray alleged that it was on that very day after 8 pm that armed policemen surrounded his house. He said that although he asked them from his balcony the purpose of their being there, they did not respond. He corroborated this with a call he said that he made to his lawyers; Hindolo Gevao and Saffa Abdulai.
During cross-examination, by state counsel Umu Sumaray, Kamarainba failed to corroborate the statement he made with regards to the failure of the Police not extending their investigations to a private school and admitted it was unintentional that he did not tell the Police the name of the school. Madam Sumaray then asked whether what he said was in the statement and he replied that he didn’t recall. This was evidenced in exhibit N1-71 page 10.
Justice Samuel Taylor adjourned the matter to the 15th June 2021.
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