By Francis H. Murray
The elder sister of the late Khadija Saccoh has told the High Court that she was sexually assaulted by Ibrahim Bah, the 2nd accused in the murder trial of her five year-old sister. She said she hates the accused person for life.
The witness said the deceased lived with the 1st accused prior to her death and that she used to visit the house of the 1st accused to spend weekends. She said during those visits, one Alex also used to visit the 1st accused to watch movies and to assist her with some domestic work.
The witness added that anytime the 1st accused left the house for any reason, she would leave them in the care of a neighbor. She maintained that the 1st accused on a certain day went to pick her up from a place she had gone to get her hair done. “So when we reached home, the 2nd accused asked that he penetrates me with his finger and I said no because I had been flogged for that. He said he would buy me an orange if I agreed, so he removed his trousers leaving his private part exposed and he asked me to lie on him. I refused to do what he had requested for fear of being flogged but he asked me not to tell anyone. He then inserted his fingers into my private part,” she explained.
The 10-year old said at times, she was assigned by the 1st accused to clean up the deceased after using the toilet and that one occasion when she attempted to clean up the deceased, she resisted and started complaining that she was feeling pains in her private parts. The witness said she reported the matter to the 1st accused but she ignored the complaint.
Under cross-examination by lawyer Emmanuel T. Koroma on behalf of the 2nd accused, the witness stressed that she used to go to the house of the 1st accused where the deceased lived. She said she's been confused about her age but that she's 10 and she recalled that the last time she visited the home of the first accused was in January 2020 to spend the weekend and that one Alex also used to visit.
She stressed that on a certain day, the 1st accused instructed the 2nd to go and pick her up from where she had gone to get her hair done and that the 2nd accused is a business man and was not always at home.
Asked about the relationship between her and the 2nd accused, the witness said “I hate him for life, I had hated him even before the death of Khadija,” adding that at the time of the sexual assault, she couldn’t tell whether her mother was out of the country or had left for somewhere else. She denied having discussed anything about the trial or her testimony with her father or anyone else, saying that her father brought her to court straight from school and was not told to say anything specific in the court.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online
