A primary school teacher missed spending the next 20 years in prison after pleading guilty of aggravated defilement.
Nyanga Joel, a teacher at Awiri primary school in Dokolo district was accused of defiling a girl below the age of 15, a teenage pupil from the same school he teaches.
Prosecution told Court that on 30, May 2015, the accused while at Bar- Olam village in Dokolo district defiled a teenage girl following his sexual advances way back in 2014.
It is alleged that the girl accepted his advance in February 2015 when she was first abused and given only shs.1, 000 as an appreciation, not transport back home!
On 30 May 2015, the victim was abused, again in a cassava garden and as a result returned home with blood stained clothes.
When asked by family members to explain what happened, the victim narrated that teacher Nyanga raped her. It led to Nyanga’s arrest and later was charged with aggravated defilement.
The accused opted for plea bargain session where he pleaded guilty and subsequently convicted on his own plea to five years in jail.
Related: Defiled two in two weeks: Same boda man, 32, found defiling girl, 15, held
Also: Politician arrested for defiling teenage girl for four consecutive days
More:Defilement Suspect Confuses Lira Court Session
Gloria Akello, the accused lawyer told prosecution that the accused was a counseling authority to the victim and having considered the age gap, they agreed that the accused be sentenced to 5 years in prison.
“Having considered the mitigating circumstances and the fact that the victim is currently married off and the accused family had already compensated the victim’s family, let him serve 5 years in prison, taking into consideration the 2 years already spent on remand,” she pleaded.
However, when reading his ruling, Justice Alex McKay Ajiji, stated that the convict had the responsibility of taking care of the victim.
“The accused was a teacher to the victim. Who knows if she had not dropped out of school and the accused never tampered with her mind? She would be the next Cecilia Atim Ogwal of this region,” Justice McKay Ajiji says.
He added that: “Even the compensation given to her family does not improve the life of the victim and now we are hearing that she is married off.”
He therefore ruled that the accused be sentenced to serve 5 years in prison without deducting the 2 years spent on remand.
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