By Alimatu Jalloh
An 18-year-old girl has explained before Justice Adrian Fisher how she narrowly escaped death from the hands of an alleged ritualist Lansan Kallie.
Led in evidence by state Counsel S. Kekura, the victim who was still in pain, told the court on the September 25, 2023, that she recognised the accused and recalled November 16, 2021.
She said that she was staying in Pujehun district but was sent to her father in Bonthe district. She said while in Bonthe attending schooling she was without a shoe. “I then told my father to get me a shoe or I will stop going to school. My father refused to buy me one, so I stayed at home for two days without going to school. My father then asked me out of the house and told people in the neighbourhood including my namesake not to accommodate me,” she explained.
She said that her father said she must return to where she came from, adding that it was late in the evening. She said that while she was going, she met the accused and other unknown people who caught her and took her into a bush.
The victim further said that she was in the bush for a while and was taken to a room with her eyes tied.
“While in the room with my eyes tied, I heard a child crying. In the morning hours, I and the child were taken to the bush,” she said.
The girl said the baby was then brutally killed with an Iron rod and its blood drained into a rubber. she said their attackers then took the remains of the child to a riverside and left them there.
She said that on the following day, she was then taken into the bush and four men including accused then took an Iron rod and inserted it in her vagina and she went unconscious.
“I only gained consciousness at the hospital, but I can’t speak. During that time, I saw one of the men from the bush lying dead. I threw the coconut I was holding pointing at him,” she said.
The investigating officer Detective Constable Kposowa attached to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) noted during his testimony that, upon receipt of the matter for investigation a team of police officers went to the scene of crime at Bolenkeh chiefdom and spoke with the Local Unit Commander and the chief including other people and the victim while in the hospital.
He said on their return on December 22, 2021, the accused was arrested and brought to the CID Headquarters, adding that they took statement from him on February 7, and charged him with the offences of conspiracy, murder and sexual penetration.
At this juncture defence lawyer I. Bangura cross-examined the witness. The matter was then adjourned to October 6, 2023, for further hearing.