By Francis H. Murray
The trial of one Mustapha Kabba who allegedly robbed and caused grievous bodily harm to octogenarian Kitty Fadlu-Deen has started with Justice Komba Kamanda presiding with a 12-member jury at the High Court in Freetown.
In his opening address to the jurors shortly after they were sworn in, prosecuting Lawyer Yada Williams said that the accused was before the court on a four count indictment, including robbery with aggravation, causing grievous bodily harm and attempting to strangle.
He said the prosecution will adduce evidence to establish that on the 1st September 2020 at about 8:15 am, the accused person went to the premises of Mrs. Fadlu-Deen at Lumley and upon arrival at the house, encountered unarmed security guards but pretended as if he was on the phone with Mrs. Fadlu-Deen to trick the guards to have access to the premises. “He went upstairs tricked his way in and there started the agony, pain and sufferings of this over 80-year old woman. She was physically manhandled by the accused person and the evidence will reveal all of this. She was dragged into one of the toilets inside the house and there she was girded with a lot of toiled tissues and towels stuffed into her mouth so that she could not raise an alarm for the guards outside or neighbors,’’ he noted.
Lawyer Yada Williams said for the incident itself to have taken place in broad daylight showed the “effrontery and audacity” of the accused, adding that the accused tied up the old woman and demanded the keys to the vehicle with registration number AQG 834 and was directed to where the keys were kept out of fear.
He said that: “the accused person locked Mrs. Fadlu-Deen in the toilet, took her phone and disappeared with the vehicle which landed in Sierra Leone almost brand new costing $24,500,000 and with the deception that he was in some kind of relation with the woman, the guards opened the gates and the accused drove off. This woman was able to scream later on after struggling for few minutes and the neighbors and servants came to her rescue.’’
The prosecuting lawyer said a report of the incident was made at the Lumley Police Station with Interpol alerted as well as security personnel at the Sierra Leone-Guinea border.
He added that later on the same day, the accused showed up at the Sierra Leone Guinea border with the vehicle with a diplomatic license plate recorded as 19 CD 12 and was intercepted by the Guinean authorities with the gun he had used to terrify the woman.
He said the accused was detained for 11 days and later repatriated to Freetown where he was detained at the Lumley police station and later taken to the house of the victim to re-enact what had transpired and that the accused made a number of confessional statements to the police.
He said the accused admitted to the police that he had sold the woman’s phone which he stole on his way to Guinea.
The matter has been adjourned to 16th March 2021.
The persecution alleges that the accused on the 1st September 2020, in the Western Area of Freetown being armed with a Black Powerline Semi-Automatic Gun robbed Mrs. Fadlu-Deen off one dark grey 2018 Toyota Rav-4 Jeep valued $24,500,000 equivalent to Le245, 000,000,000 one Samsung J-20 mobile phone valued $150 equivalent to Le1, 500,000, caused her grievous bodily harm and attempted to strangle her.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online 10/03/21
