An Ekiti State High Court sitting in Ado Ekiti has sentenced a 45-year-old commercial driver, Lawrence Adedapo, to seven years imprisonment for raping 80-year-old women, Mrs. Grace Asaolu.
Justice Bamidele Omotoso who convicted Adedapo held that evidence before the court showed that the driver forcefully had a carnal knowledge of the old woman and was guilty as charged.
Apart from the confessional statement of the convict and the victim, the prosecution also tendered in evidence the blood-stained clothes of the old woman in proving the case beyond the reasonable doubt.
The convict who plied his trade in Otun Ekiti sexually assaulted the octogenarian on 7th November, 2017 at Oke Erimope Street, Ogbese via Ise-Ekiti and was subsequently charged to court.
In the course of the trial, Adedapo pleaded not guilty to the charge and gave evidence in his own defence but called no witness.
In his testimony, Adedapo who described the old woman as his “mother as well as his concubine” whom he has been dating as far back as his bachelor years claimed that Mrs. Asaolu framed him up.
He claimed that the old woman had earlier approached him for a sum of money to travel to her village but on that date, she walked into his room and demanded for the money.
The driver claimed that the old woman started romancing him which eventually led to a sexual intercourse after he had given her N1, 000.
The prosecution led by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Owoseni Ajayi, gave evidence that the convict confessed to have been dating the woman before the incident and that she consented to the sexual intercourse.
Ajayi tendered the blood-stained clothes of the victim which was recovered from the scene of the incident.
Among issues for determination raised for determination by the court include whether upon the totality of evidence before it, the prosecution proved the offence of rape against the defendant as required by law to warrant conviction.
And whether the convict can be let off the hook by his claim that the sexual intercourse occurred between because they were lovers.
The trial judge resolved the issues against Adedapo and consequently sentenced him to a jail term of seven years for unlawfully carnal knowledge of the old woman.
