Ariwodola Idowu

An Ado Ekiti High Court on Monday sentenced a 45-year-old commercial driver, Lawrence Adedapo, to seven years imprisonment for raping an 80-year-old woman, Madam Grace Asaolu.

The sentence on Adedapo has brought to five the number of persons convicted for the offence in the last two years in the area with one of them bagging life sentence.

Before his sentence on Monday, the Presiding Justice Dele Omotoso said he convicted Adedapo based on evidence before the court which showed that the driver forcefully had carnal knowledge of the old woman and was guilty as charged.

According to the court, the convict sexually assaulted the octogenarian on Nov. 7, 2013 at Oke Erimope Street, Ogbese, Ise-Ekiti and was subsequently charged to court.

In the course of the trial, Adedapo was said to have pleaded not guilty to the charge and gave evidence in his own defence, but called no witness to back his claims.

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 days, claimed that Asaolu framed him up.

He 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 for the money.

The driver claimed that the old woman started romancing him which eventually led to a sexual intercourse 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 victim which was recovered from the scene of the incident.

The trial judge resolved all issues in determination against Adedapo and consequently sentenced him to a jail term of seven years for having unlawful carnal knowledge of the old woman.

– NAN