A court in Mombasa has acquitted a 21-year-old man over charges of defilement levelled against him by his 17-year-old girlfriend.
Mombasa Principal Magistrate Vincent Adet in his judgment noted that although the age of the complainant was in dispute the two were in a sexual relationship that lasted for over one year.
“The court heard that the perpetrator lured the complainant into a sexual relationship where they have been having sexual intercourse severally on diverse dates for almost more than one year until she realized she was pregnant. From the foregoing l have all the reason to doubt that the complainant was defiled,” Adet ruled.
“From the foregoing l have all the reason to doubt the testimony of the complainant. This will definitely act in favour of the accused person. Thus, l do find the prosecution case not proved beyond reasonable doubt accused is hereby acquitted for the offence of defilement pursuant to section 215 of the criminal procedure code(CPC),” he added.
The magistrate observed that from the evidence adduced before his court, the complainant was not forcefully defiled since it was her evidence that the two lovers spent more than 20 minutes while doing the act.
“The court heard that the two had to take a rest then resumed, that is when they had two rounds of sexual intercourse, took their time and enjoyed the act and in such circumstances, it would not have amounted to forceful sex as alleged by the victim,” Adet noted.
Adet further noted that the suspect did not take advantage of the complainant’s young age and lured her into sex since in her contradicting statements to both the police and the doctor she hid the identity of the alleged lover and only disclosed the lover’s identity while in labour pains.
“There is a contradiction in the victim’s statement, she is not a reliable witness. The court is unable to tell if she is telling the truth. Due to her demeanour, this will definitely act in favour of the accused person,” he stated.
The accused person had been charged with the offence of defilement contrary to section 8(1) as read with section 8(4) of the sexual offences Act.
