By Lamin Fatty
Justice Landing. M. Sanneh of the Basse High Court on Monday, 29July 2024 convicted and sentenced one Bojang Jallow for rape and other offences. The convict was sentenced to fifteen (15) years imprisonment.
The Judge said the victim, who is a married woman, was raped inside her matrimonial house in a dreadful/threatening manner in the presence of her two little children.
The case was filed by the Attorney General on 29 March 2022. BOJANG JALLOW was charged with three offences: Rape contrary to Section 3(1)(a) and Section 3 (2) (d) and punishable under Section 4 of the Sexual Offences Act 2013, Escape from lawful custody contrary to Section 108 of the Criminal Code and Entering into a dwelling house with intent to commit felony contrary to Section 282(2) of the Criminal Code.
The prosecution alleged that Bojang Jallow sometime in September 2019 in Sare Gainako Village, Central River Region of the Gambia used coercion to have unlawful carnal knowledge of one lady [name withheld].
The prosecution alleged that Bojang Jallow in September 2019 while under lawful detention at Jareng Police Station in the Central River Region of The Gambia escaped from the lawful custody of the Gambia Police Force.
The prosecution alleged that Bojang Jallow in September 2019 in Sare Gainako Village, Central River Region of the Gambia between 11 pm and 12 am broke into the dwelling-house of the victim of rape.
Bojang pleaded not guilty to the charge of rape but pleaded guilty to the charge of escape from lawful custody. He pleaded not guilty to the charge of escaping from lawful custody. The accused person later retracted his plea for the charge of escaping from lawful custody. He pleaded not guilty.
Senior Counsel Kebba Baldeh contended that the two voluntary statements that were obtained by the police from Bojang Jallow were obtained by force (duress). The defence counsel then called for a voire dire (trial within a trial) to that effect to establish whether the statements were voluntarily obtained from the accused.
Voire dire was conducted in which Lamin Manneh, a police officer testified as prosecution witness one, and Ousman Barry testified as prosecution witness two. For his part. the accused testified as defence witness one and testified alone in his defence.
At the end of voire dire, the court ruled that the two voluntary statements of the accused were obtained correctly as the laid down procedures were adhered to and no force was used at the time of taking the statements.
The court then admitted the two said statements ( for the offences pf Escaped from lawful custody and rape) in evidence and marked them as Exhibits “A’ and “A1” respectively.
The summary evidence of the prosecution case as per their witnesses’ testimonies and Exhibits “A” and Exhibit “Al” respectively are that the accused was accused of having entered into the dwelling house of the complainant during night time, had sex with her without her consent in a forceful and threatening manner and he escaped from the police while under custody.
The accused in his defence denied all the three counts. He said he had never entered the complainant’s house with a knife let alone threatened her. He testified that he did not unlawfully escape while under detention as he was asked to go by a police officer.
“The court in this case, will heavily rely on the evidence of prosecution witness 2 [the complainant], who is the victim,” the Judge said.
The victim stated in her sworn testimony; “My name is [name withheld]. I lived at Sara Gainako. I am a businesswoman. I know the accused very well. On Sunday night, Bojang Jallow went to my house, he came through my back window. My house contains two rooms and a parlour. He broke through the first window and entered, went to the parlour, and proceeded to the bedroom where I was with my two kids by then I was sleeping with my children. He woke me up, he was having his knife. He held onto my arm and placed his other hand on my chest while he placed the knife there too, he said if you should shout, ‘I will kill you’. He said, ‘I came for your husband but I couldn’t meet him here’, so he will kill me instead. He dragged me to the parlour and I told him to forgive me and ‘don’t kill me’ as I could not sleep (to have sex with you). He asked me to undress, and I asked him to forgive me, and he told me ‘if you don’t undress, I will kill you as I have drunk ‘ros’ I then laid down, and he then put his penis inside my vagina.
“After he sexed me, he asked me to lick and suck his penis. All that while, he was having his knife. I sucked his penis and I asked him to forgive me as my children are very young. He asked me to shut up as when he doesn’t release his sperm he will not let me free. I asked him to forgive me and he said if he doesn’t release sperm he will not let me free. He asked me to suck his penis again as he could not release his sperm into my vagina. I open my mouth and he put his penis inside my mouth until I nearly vomit. As he couldn’t have feelings after, he asked me to get up, and I got up. He took me outside; I told him ‘where are you taking me? Please forgive me as I am the only one here with my children’. All that time he placed the knife on my chest. He later returned me to the room and he then bent me on my bed. It was after he collected and put on his boxer (underwear) and trousers and left. After he left, I took out my telephone and called my husband. I told him somebody had come to the house, he said I should call one Ba Pateh Jallow because should the man return. When he called Ba Pateh, he came with some men from the village and they took me to the house of Fatoumatta Penda to sleep there. I could not sleep there. I was sitting down because I was scared. The Bojang Jallow I mentioned earlier is the accused person herein. I had sex with the accused because he was having a knife in his hands and if I didn’t have sex with him, he was going to kill me. The reason he said why he went to our house was because my husband was dating his mother, which is not true. He bent me and used his penis and penetrated it through my anus.”
The Judge said the testimony of the victim was tested when being cross-examined by the defence counsel; however, the court was not convinced that the defence had any punch hole or discredited her evidence.
“It is challenged but remained credible evidence of [the victim] that she had engaged in a sexual act (sex) with the accused. As she said, the accused person put his penis inside her vagina, he also put his penis inside her mouth as well as into her anus. The court is of the view that the accused had carnal knowledge of the victim,” Justice Sanneh said.
The accused in his defence said one police officer by the name of Bakary Jarju helped him. The accused said: “He gave me a torchlight and say go and stay in Casamance don’t stay in the Gambia. He told me never mention my name when you are caught as I may lose my job when they know I am the one who enabled you to escape. Then I decided to escape”.
In his plea of mitigations, Defence Counsel said: “My Lord, to err is human and to forgive is divine. We respectfully plead with this court to tamper justice with mercy. My Lord, I believe every human being should be given a second chance.
“He is a first-time offender, and he has shown remorse throughout the proceedings. He has a very aged father and he is the breadwinner of his family. We urge this court to wear a human hat and lessen his sentence.”
The Judge said the occurrence of the offence of rape is on the increase in the country, The Gambia which is very worrisome in our society.
“The law makes rape a very serious offence and so has provided for severe punishments based on the circumstances of each rape case. The offence of rape is obviously against the health of the society. Each time a female is raped, it has an ever-ending stigma on her in the society for the rest of her life,” the Judge said.
“What a heartless mind the convict must have had at the time of the incident. I considered the convict action to be disgraceful and total disrespect to the complainant and by extension to the whole female folks”.
He added: “The convict could have even killed the innocent complainant or her two little vulnerable children on the night of the incident as he was armed with a knife which he even threatened to use to kill the complainant. He, the convict, could even have inflicted serious injury on the complainant and her children. The convict might have infected the complainant with disease(s) which certainly will have a tingling effect on her family.
“The convict will be punished so that he will know that what he did to the complainant is unlawful. It will equally serve as a deterrence factor to others and the ‘could be offenders’ of such offence. The sooner the heartless men zipped their trousers to avoid having unlawful sexual intercourse with our vulnerable female folks who are our mothers, sisters, and wives, the better for society. This court completely condemned this barbaric act met on the complainant by the convict Bojang Jallow.”
Justice Sanneh said he would be punished for the other offences, too.
BOJANG JALLOW was sentenced to fifteen (15) years imprisonment for rape; he was sentenced to three (3) months imprisonment for escaping lawful custody, and three (3) years for entering a dwelling house with intent to commit a crime during nighttime.
He said the sentences are to run concurrently (at the same time) and the sentences start running from 23 June 2022, the day the court first remanded him.
