An Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State High Court has sentenced a 45-year-old commercial driver, Lawrence Adedapo, to seven years imprisonment for raping an 80-year-old woman, Madam Grace Asaolu.
Delivering judgment on Monday, Justice Dele Omotoso declared that adedapo was convicted based on the evidence before the court, which showed that the driver forcibly had a carnal knowledge of the old woman and was found guilty as charged.
Adedapo was said to have sexually assaulted the octogenarian on November 7, 2013 at Oke Erimope Street, Ogbese, Ise-Ekiti and was subsequently charged to court.
In the course of the trial, Adedapo pleaded not guilty to the charge and gave evidence in his own defence but called no witness.
In his testimony, Adedapo, who described the old woman as his “mother” as well as his “concubine,” whom he had been dating as far back as his bachelor years, claimed that Madam Asaolu framed him up in the case.
The convict claimed that the old woman had earlier approached him for a sum of money to travel to her village but on that date, she walked into his room and demanded the money.
The driver claimed that the old woman started romancing him and this eventually led to a sexual intercourse between them after he had given her N1,000.
The prosecution led by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Owoseni Ajayi, gave evidence that the convict confessed to have been dating the woman before the incident and that she consented to the sexual intercourse.
Ajayi tendered the blood-stained clothes of the octogenarian, which was recovered from the scene of the incident, and the trial judge resolved all issues for determination against Adedapo, folllowing which he was consequently sentenced to a jail term of seven years for having unlawful carnal knowledge of the old woman.
