KUNLE OLUTAYO
An Ikeja Special and Sexual Offences Court has convicted and sentenced Nollywood actor, Olanrewaju Omiyinka James, also known as Baba Ijesa, to 16 years imprisonment for sexual assault of an underage girl.
Delivering the judgment, the trial judge, Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo, in a two-hour judgment on Thursday, found the defendant guilty of four
offences out of the six he stood trail for.
The defendant was found guilty of indecent treatment and sexual assault of a 14-year-old minor between 2013 and 2014.
The offences bordered on allegations of indecent treatment of a child, sexual assault, attempted sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault by penetration.
James was pronounced guilty of counts two, three, four and five, while the prosecution could not prove counts one and six, according to the
court.
He was found guilty of indecent treatment of a child and sexual assault, which is contrary to Section 135 of Lagos State Criminal Law
2015.
The law stipulates that “any person who unlawfully and indecently deals with a child commits a felony and is liable on conviction to
imprisonment for seven years.”
The judge held that the prosecution successfully proved counts two and
three, that he indecently placed the victim on his laps and rubbed his manhood on her body.
He was also found guilty of counts four and five in which he was accused of again indecently touching the same minor and sexually assaulting her seven years later by rubbing her body and sucking her fingers.
