70-yr-old jailed 40 years for aggravated defilement

CRIME    JUSTICE

Masindi High Court has sentenced a 70-year-old man to 40 years in jail for aggravated defilement.

Medard Rusongwa, a refugee from the Kyangwali refugee camp in Kikuube district, was sentenced on Friday by a visiting judge, Justice Anna Bitature after finding him guilty of defiling a five-year-old girl.

Prosecution led by Masindi state Attorney, Arthurton Kukundakwe had told the court that on April 3, 2016, in Kyebitaka village in Kikuube district, Rusongwa found the child in a rest house in the garden where she had been left by the mother and defiled her.

Kukundakwe also said the child's cry alerted her mother who was digging in a nearby place and found Rusongwa in the act. She sounded an alarm that attracted other residents who arrested him and handed him to the police.

In her ruling, Justice Bitature said prosecution had proved that the accused person committed the offence.

 
She said  Rusongwa defiled the child who is fit to be his grandchild and fit to be under his protection adding that rights of children need to be protected and such acts should be stopped.

She said the 40-year jail sentence will serve as an example and deter all those intending to commit a similar offence.