34-Year-Old Man Sentenced To 110 Years in Prison For Defiling Schoolgirls
A Kericho court has sentenced to 110 years in prison a 34-year-old man who pleaded not guilty to defiling two schoolgoing children in his home after seeing them eating guavas they had stolen from his fruit tree.
Hillary Rotich was found guilty by Kericho Resident Magistrate Elizabeth Karani of defiling two schoolgoing children, aged eight and twelve, on February 12, 2022, in the Rungut region of Bureti sub-county, Kericho, at approximately 4 p.m.
Additionally, Rotich was charged with alternate counts of indecent actions with kids, to which he pled not guilty.
The prosecution presented seven witnesses who all testified in concert against the defendant.
The court heard that on a fatal day, two school-aged minors arrived at the accused’s residence and began harvesting guavas.
The accused then emerged from his residence and greeted them before forcibly pulling them into his residence, where he defiled each of them in turn on his bed.
The defendant threatened to murder them if they sounded the alarm. Later, he gave each of the two youngsters Sh50 and Sh25 before opening his door and instructing them to go.
The eight-year-old girl notified her mother upon her return home that the accused had violated her, which her mother verified in court.
The youngsters were checked and treated at the Kapkatet district hospital, and the incident was reported to the Litein police station.
A clinical officer who examined the two complainants testified that they had been defiled, adding that their private parts were swollen and their hymens were still bleeding.
The defendant gave an unsworn statement in court as part of his defense.
He denied committing the conduct, stating that he was apprehended at his residence upon his return from work, where he was notified of two defiled children and identified as the suspect.
The defendant claimed that bad blood between his family and the complainant’s family prompted the complainant’s family to link him with a crime he did not commit.
In mitigation, he stated that he had asthma, was a half orphan, and was the primary provider for his immediate family, which consisted of his brother and his widowed mother.
A probation report presented to the court revealed that the defendant did not admit to committing the alleged offense, and he went through the entire hearing to prove his innocence.
According to the report, the accused was extremely regretful to the complainant’s family, and the community portrayed him as a guy of impeccable social standing.
The resident magistrate, however, ruled the defendant guilty and sentenced him to 60 years for the first accusation and 50 years for the second.
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Both sentences will run consecutively, resulting in a 60-year prison term for the offender.
“I have considered the charges, the circumstances of the offenses, the accused mitigation, the probation, pre-sentencing report, the law, and how prevalent these offenses are in Kericho. The accused be added to the register of dangerous sexual offenders,” ordered Karani.
The court reminded the defendant of his right to appeal the sentence within fourteen days if he was unhappy with it.
34-Year-Old Man Sentenced To 110 Years in Prison For Defiling Schoolgirls
