A secondary school teacher, Idowu Daniel, was Monday sentenced to seven years imprisonment by a Lagos State Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting his 16-year-old student within the school premises.
The 31-year-old Daniel, who was arraigned on charges bordering on defilement, was accused of having unlawful carnal knowledge of his student in the Biology laboratory at Anastasia Comprehensive College, Abule-Egba, on June 27, 2019, at 9.25am.
While pronouncing the sentence on Idowu, the presiding judge, Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo, held that though the prosecution failed to establish the charge of defilement against the convict, as the victim failed to show up in court to testify, his confessional statement which was made voluntarily, showed that he sexually assaulted the minor.
“The defendant admitted to have fondled the breast of the victim twice and tried to have sex with her but he could not penetrate as she was a virgin.
“The defendant is hereby convicted on the charge of sexual assault of a child,” she said.
When he was given a chance to speak, the convict pleaded for mercy and asked the judge to be lenient with him.
“My lord, I am very sorry for what happened. I promise it will not happen again,” Daniel told the court.
But the judge refused to hearken to his plea as she lashed out at the convict for touching the victim in a suggestive way, adding that he would have gotten life imprisonment if the minor had testified in court.
“You are a teacher and you were touching the breast of your student. You would have gone for life imprisonment if the victim had come to court to testify,” Justice Taiwo said.
(Ripples Nigeria)
