Tuesday, September 29, 2009

School head defends alleged rapist

The defense counsel for one Momodou Musa Sidibeh, Lawyer E.M. Sissoho, last Thursday September 24, 2009, called on one Madam Anna Bertrand Cooker, the headmistress of Bakoteh Lower Basic School to testify as a defense witness before Justice Moses Richards of the Special Criminal Court in Banjul.

The accused, Momodou Musa Sidibeh, is alleged to have had carnal knowledge of a 7-year old school girl, in Bakoteh on October 10, 2007. The alleged victim is said to be a student of the Bakoteh Lower Basic School. The witness, Madam Cooker, said she came to know the accused during the 2004/5 academic year, when he came to the school and explained that he was from the provinces and had nobody in the area to stay with but wanted to engage in petty business so that he could help his parents who were in the provinces.

The mistress further said that after listening to the accused, she advised him to get some corrugated iron sheets and erected a kiosk outside the school gate and said she assisted the accused to get authorization from the K.M.C, after which the accused started operating his business. The defense witness revealed that her school has about 3,400 students of whom 1,780. She added that they all buy food from the accused person’s shop, including the teachers. The witness also said that she has a very close relationship with the accused, who calls her mummy.

The witness further said the accused moved into the kiosk as a bachelor but two years later, he got married when his parents in Niamina sent him a wife along with a little girl. The witness said she learnt about the alleged incident when the victim’s father accompanied his daughter to the school on Monday, October 13, 2008, alleging that his daughter was raped and had come late on October 10, 2008, a Friday.

The witness said she asked him whether he had taken his daughter to the hospital or to the police, but the father replied in the negative and said he had instead given her some Paracetamol tablets to drink. The witness said she then asked the victim’s father to accompany his daughter round the classes so as to identify the teacher who was alleged to have committed the act. She said the victim’s father left but returned some minutes later and left the school premises with his daughter.

The witness then told the court that the father returned after a while and told her that they have seen the culprit, whom he named as the man in the green kiosk. She said she then asked one of the senior teachers in the school to accompany them to call the man in the green kiosk. The mistress disclosed that when the accused arrived, he was quizzed but retorted that he has his wife and children in the house and could not do such a thing?
The witness said she then asked the alleged victim where the incident took place. According to her, the girl first said inside the accused person’s kiosk but later said that it took place at the dump site. She added that an argument then arose, leading to the crowd converging on the scene. She said she then advised the victim’s father to go to the police. The witness said the father left for the police station and the child ran into her class and throughout that day, was very active and played with her mates in the school until around 1.00pm when the father came back to collect her.

The headmistress told the court that she is confident that the accused cannot do such a thing on the premise that she knows him to be a person of decent character, and a very respectful person. She further said the accused lives with his family inside the kiosk where he was operating his business and the victim’s allegation that the accused sexually abused her in two different places led her to doubt that the accused person had committed the offense. She also concluded that the way that the child was playing that very Monday, she did not look like someone who had been sexually abused.
Hearing continues.

2 comments:

  1. why did the father NOT take her to be examined..... that would be the first thing I would do, to see if the girl was injured.. also to check to see if it is possible she is pregnant or got a disease....
    SOMETHING may have happened, but maybe not what the girl said or the father said

    ReplyDelete
  2. why did the father NOT take her to be examined..... that would be the first thing I would do, to see if the girl was injured.. also to check to see if it is possible she is pregnant or got a disease

    SOMETHING may have happened, but maybe not what the girl said or the father said

    ReplyDelete

Violence against women is a worldwide yet still hidden problem. Freedom from the threat of harassment, battering, and sexual assault is a concept that most of us have a hard time imagining because violence is such a deep part of our cultures and lives.