Court jails driver 12 years for defiling housekeeper

A 37-year-old driver, Femi Tonade, was on Tuesday sentenced to 12 years in prison in an Ikeja High Court for defiling a 14-year-old housekeeper of his employer.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Kudirat Jose reduced the jail term from life imprisonment to 12 years, after hearing the plea for mercy by the defence counsel.
She said: “It is easy to plead for people but it is easier for people to offend. You just don’t see a child and decide to have forceful carnal knowledge of her.
“Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos recommends a term of life in prison for the offence of defilement.
“However, after listening to your allocutus, the court is going to be lenient with the defendant and sentence him to 12 years in prison.
“The sentence will commence from the first day he was incarcerated.”
Jose also noted that the evidence of the minor against the defendant was cogent and believable and that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
The prosecution led by Mrs A.B. Awosika, had told the court that Tonade committed the offence on Dec. 1, 2015 at Iju-Ishaga, Lagos.
Awosika said that the convict and his employer were outside an apartment while the complainant was in the building cleaning the upstairs.
“The convict crept upstairs without his employer’s knowledge, physically restrained the housekeeper and had forceful carnal knowledge of her,” she said.
She said that the complainant confided in her employer about the defilement the following day, and it was promptly reported to the authorities.
The prosecutor added that subsequent medical examinations confirmed that the housekeeper was defiled.
She said the offence violated Section 137 of the Criminal Code of Lagos State.
Counsel to the convict, Mrs Olabimpe Bamboye, asked the court to temper justice with mercy.
“My Lord, please temper justice with mercy. The defendant is a driver; he has a family and an aged father whom he takes care of.
“Ever since he has been in custody, the defendant has not been able to take care of his family,” she pleaded.