Home : News : Gambia child rape gives life sentence
Gambia child rape gives life sentence
A regional court in The Gambia on Monday
convicted and sentenced a taxi driver, Ebou Sey, to life imprisonment
after he was found guilty of raping a 9-year-old school girl. This is
one of the first court cases involving a Gambian paedophile, thus
creating judicial and media history in the country. Mr Sey was charged with having
unlawful canal knowledge with a minor without her consent on 17
December 2006 in the outskirts of Serekunda, a commercial town just
outside the capital of The Gambia, Banjul.
He pleaded guilty to the charge, which violates Section 122 of the
Gambian Criminal Code and went further to furnish the court how he had
committed the act.
"I came across the girl on her way to school, I was attracted by her
structure and I therefore could not control my feeling," Mr Sey told
the court, adding that he had therefore overpowered the minor girl and
had carnal knowledge with her on a thick-long grass. "I definitely
acted unwisely," he further admitted.
In his verdict, Magistrate Moses Richards, condemned rape in strongest
possible terms and described it as a serious offence that must not be
entertained in any civilised society.
Mr Richards said the courts would not therefore have mercy on any
person found guilty of such crimes, which according to him, poses
victims to great number of risks, including contracting
sexually-transmitted infections and psychological traumas. The court
thought that the stiff punishment would serve as a deterrent to
would-be rapists in the country.
Over the years, children and women's rights activists have been
campaigning for harsh punishment to be levied on anybody found guilty
of the act of rape in The Gambia. They would receive the verdict with
joy.
It was reported that a lot of Gambian children and women have become
victims of rape. "Most [acts of rape] happen within the same household
but the irony is that they are hardly reported for fear that such might
destabilise the family," Amie Joof-Cole, a Gambian gender rights
activist based in Senegal, earlier told afrol News.
In The Gambia, paedophilia has earlier gotten much attention in the
local press due to a rather large number of sex tourists from Europe
abusing young and poor girls and boys. Several cases against tourists
have been before the courts in The Gambia and in Europe.
Among Gambians, however, the sexual abuse of minors has been largely
seen as a non-African act of crime and perversion - at least by
officials. The issue of paedophilia among Gambians therefore has not
received much public attention until the trial against Mr Sey. Gender
activists as Ms Joof-Cole nevertheless believe that sexual abuse and
rape of minors is rather widespread in the country, although treated as
a taboo when witnessed.
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