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Gbarpolu-The man who raped a three-year old child and later found guilty by the 16th judicial Circuit Court of Gbarpolu County has been sentenced to jail for forty years.
A guilty verdict was down against Junior Harris of for committing statutory rape.
Mr. Harris penetrated the child, thus leaving her to bleed profusely from her private part.
Grand Jury for this north-western County during the May A.D.2024 term of Court returned a true bill against defendant Harris, a resident of Weasua Town, Gbarma district recently.
According to the indictment, the victim's mother took her on the farm and left the victim under a tent where the defendant, her neighbor, crept, entered the tent and had sex with the child.
The case was heard during this May Term of Court during which Harris was arraigned in open court on Monday, June 4, 2024 and pleaded guilty to the indictment.
According to section 14.3(a) of the new rape law of Liberia, any person who at the time of the relevant act or immediately before it began, was using violence against the victim or causing the victim to fear that immediate violence would be used against him/her. The court further says even though the defendant pleaded guilty to the indictment, Section 16.4 of the Criminal procedure law gives the judge the discretionary power to impose sentence, since Rape is not a capital offence as envisages by Section 14.70(4)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv) and (b) the New rape law, which makes a First degree rape a Felony of the First degree grading and sentencing.
On the other hand," the Crime of statutory Rape is a Felony, hence any imposition of a sentence must adhere to the RAPE law."
Considering the references, Presiding Judge at the 16th Judicial Circuit Court, Cllr. Wesseh A. Wesseh, sentenced him to 40 years of jail, covering the period of his arrest on May 17,2024 to May 17, 2064.
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