By Henry Kargbo
Hon Justice Cosmotina Jarret has acquitted and discharged Paul Frank, a pastor, from an alleged sexual penetration indictment against him.
Pastor Paul Frank was standing a trial before the judge for having engaged in an act of sexual penetration with an under aged girl.
The accused pastor was charged under section 19 of the old Sexual Offenses Act No. 12 of 2012.
According to the offense, the state alleged that between the 1st January and 31st December, 2016 in Freetown the then accused committed an offense of sexual penetration.
Delivering his judgement Hon Justice Cosmotina Jarrett informed the court that during the trial the prosecutor brought in five witnesses, including the alleged victim, her aunt, the police and the Rainbo Centre.
The judge said it was alleged that the alleged victim was staying with the accused and his wife, who is also the aunt of the alleged victim.
In the year of 2017, the wife of the accused decided to leave her matrimonial home together with the alleged victim, and the victim later went to stay with her biological father and stepmother.
And after sometime the step mother said she noticed something strange happening with her child, and based on that the child was taken to the 34 Military Hospital where she was treated after being confirmed to have been sexually tampered with.
The alleged victim named the then accused as the person that tampered with her, resulting in the family and elders from the church confronting the then accused with the allegation, but the pastor denied it.
Hon Justice Jarrett furthered that during the trail there were lots of inconsistencies and great deception of witness’s testimonies and their evidence before the court was discredited under cross examination by the defense council and they figured out that there were inconsistencies in the evidence from the first to the fourth prosecutor witnesses.
He said that for every criminal case the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubts, which the judge said was not seen in this matter.
She went on to say the second, third and fourth witnesses were not reliable and truthful, she commended both the defense counsel led by lawyers Abraham Kargbo from the Legal Aid Board, and the State Prosecutor Yusuf S. Koroma for their addresses, for which the judge stated that they were helpful to the court.
