Man serving 17-year jail term for defilement to be tried afresh
A man who was has been serving 17 years jail term for defiling a neighbour’s child will go through a retrial.
Godfrey Wawire Ngero’s appeal was heard and a judgment issued Friday last week found that his request to one of the trial magistrates to hear the witnesses afresh was denied.
Wawire had appealed his sentencing on the basis that a medical assessment to determine the age of the minor was not done, that the evidence presented in court was full of contradictions and his defense and concerns were never considered.
During the trial, the court heard that on February 10, 2010 Wawire defiled a 16-year-old girl who was his neighbour’s daughter.
The girl’s mother testified that she went to check on her daughter after she took long in the communal toilet and on her way she met Wawire and later found her daughter crying in the toilet.
The girl told her parents that she had been raped by Wawire and the matter was reported at Dandora Police Station and a medical exam confirmed that her hymen was perforated.
FRAMED
Wawire was arrested and during trial he defended himself stating that there were many other people living in their plot and he never left his house on the day the incident happened.
He accused the girl and her parents of framing him in the case because he had refused to marry her and lend her father Sh200,000.
In its judgment, the Court of Appeal found that the trial was heard by three magistrates and the accused request to one of the magistrates to hear the testimonies afresh was denied.
“The state has assured us that any retrial ordered will be expedited. In those circumstances, it is our view that justice would be served by an order of retrial. We therefore make the following orders: (1) The appeal succeeds to the extent that trial is declared a nullity, (2) The conviction of the appellant is hereby quashed and the sentence set aside. (3) An expeditious retrial shall be held before another magistrate of competent jurisdiction other than Hon. E.K. Nyutu. (4) The retrial shall take no more than ninety (90) days,” read the judgement.