Court sets free Wakiso man who defiled girl aged 15

By Hillary Nsambu        
 
A Wakiso bodaboda operator, Musa Jjuuko, has survived staying in jail for 12 years for defilement after the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction, set the sentence aside and let him free, saying that the trial court had wrongly adjudged him.
 
The court blamed the trial court for convicting the appellant of simple defilement that occurred on unknown dates.
 
However, the court said that the trial court was right not to have convicted the appellant of aggravated defilement, noting from the evidence on record that the defilement victim had earlier had sexual intercourse with other people including her uncle, but she had never reported that incident to any authority.  
 
The court further noted that the victim only mentioned all those incidences when she was found talking to the appellant.
 
“The victim’s evidence in respect of those incidences is totally uncorroborated. We find that it was unsafe for the trial court to base its conviction on the uncorroborated evidence of the victim,” the court unanimously ruled.
 
The Deputy Chief Justice (DCJ) Steven Kavuma led the coram. The other justices were Richard Buteera and Fredrick Egonda-Ntende.
 
In 2010 the High Court had found Jjuuko, then aged 24, guilty of simple defilement, having been indicted for defiling a 15-year-old girl despite vehement denial that he had committed the offence.
 
Initially, Jjuuko had been indicted for aggravated defilement, but the trial court convicted him of simple defilement after full trial.