By Jane B. Mansaray.
At the Sexual Offences Model Court in Freetown, a 17-year-old girl child and a Senior Secondary School (SSS 3) pupil testified on how her biological father virginated and impregnated her.
Explaining her ordeal before the trial Judge, Justice Alhaji Momoh Jah Steven, the victim said she was sixteen years of age when her father, now accused person, started having sexual intercourse with her.
The first Prosecution Witness (PW1) who also doubles as victim, said her father with whom she was staying came into her room, which is unusual as he (accused) does not have any encouragement for her like the other children.
In her room, PW1 said the accused person, Mohamed Conteh spread a towel on her bed andย asked her to undress which she did reluctantly and after she had laid on the bed, her father then penetrated her with her legs wide open and during the process, he discharged on her.
According to the victim, she asked her father as to why he did such to her, but the accused replied that he did not know what had caused him to behave thus. This, she continued, the accused person said that for every two to three days, he would write a note on a piece of paper saying, “Please be ready for me at night”.
Due to the frequent sexual harassment from his father, the victim said she confidently approached her uncle, the younger brother of the accused person and explained all that had been going on between her and the father.
The uncle confronted the accused with the issue and in the process aggressively used abusive language on both the uncle and victim and eventually asked both of them out of the house.
The victim continued that the accused person seriously manhandled her before leaving the house. She and her uncle left and on their way, she was advised to borrow a mobile phone to call her Aunty, the younger sister of the accused person.
Her aunty located them and after explaining to her, she advised them to report the matter to the Family Support Unit (FSU) at the Lumley Police Station in Freetown.
At the Lumley Police Station, the victim said she was issued with a police medical form. Later, her Aunty took her to her own house where she stayed for nine weeks without any follow-up on the matter.
The Aunty later returned the victim back to her father`s house and while at her fatherโs house, the accused person accused her of being a witch on allegation that he dreamt her (victim) transforming into a cat.
Based on the allegation, the victim said she was taken to a Pastor where she was put on a seven-day dry fasting and after her encounter with the Pastor, she returned home to her father.
The accused person again took her to her cousins at Hagan Street and later went to Lungi to one Pa. Lamin, a herbalist.
Whenever the accused came to visit her at Lungi, the victim said the accused would put up in a guest house and instruct her to meet him there to collect items for the herbalist.
At the guest house at Lungi, the victim said her father penetrated her private part and in the process virginated her, and there after the accused told her that that he did it on the advice of a herbalist at Kabala to virginate her and use the blood to healย her from the purported witch craft allegation.
The father again moved her to Morobaya Village, Kambia District to another herbalist by the name of Mr. Alusine, where she was abandoned for seven months.
She left the village on her own and went to her grandfather who was living within Kambia District, but refused to say anything to him.
The grandfather took her back to school and while in Kambia, the witness said the accused person, through her grandfather, would invite her to meet him at his guest room to have contionous sexual intercourse with her.
In August 2020, the victim said her father requested her to go on holidays at Hagan Street in Freetown. She refused to come, but her grandfather encouraged her to go. Instead of coming to Freetown on holidays, the witness said, her father took her to his guest room at Kambia and stayed with him for seven months.
In September 2020, she noticed that she had been missing her monthly period, she fell ill and the accused took her to the Kambia government hospital where she was diagnosed of being five months pregnant.
She later fled from the hospital and returned to the guest house. When her father saw her, he gave her a drink in a bottle, but refused to drink it and upon her refusal, her father seriously beat her up and in the process, she miscarried and fell unconcious.
She later regained conciousness at the Kambia hospital and from Kambia hospital, she was referred to the Aberdeen Well Woman Centre where she was treated and thereafter taken to Don Bosco Fambul.
The matter was adjourned to the 15th October, 2021 and the accused person remanded at the Maximum Pademba Road prison.
