Monrovia – A newspaper vendor who raped his niece in Monrovia has been sentenced to 15 years by Judge Ceainah Clinton Johnson of Criminal Court “E”.
Report by Bettie K. Johnson-Mbayo/ [email protected]
Augustine Miehn, now 47, was 45 when the incident occurred in 2014 on Lynch Street in Monrovia.
Prior to his sentence, Judge Johnson in her ruling said the state presented its evidences, oral and documentary, along with the victim’s testimony which led to the jury’s unanimous guilty verdict entered against the defendant.
At the trial, the state presented 6 witnesses, including the victim Annie (not her real name) who told the trial jury that she was living with her aunt and her husband in 2014 on Lynch Street when her uncle raped her twice.
Annie said the first time rape occurred was when the yard was empty. She said her uncle went to work but came back sooner than expected, called her in his room, undressed and raped her, warning her not to tell anyone.
The second time, the victim said, the defendant left his bed and came on the floor where she and her sister slept, placed his hand to her mouth and had sexual intercourse with her.
“In the morning, I told my mother but she said it was my period I was about to receive so she bought cortex. And when my uncle came, he told me to throw it away and he called me in the room and put the music on loud.”
“While in the room, he accused me of having relationship with one of the boys in the yard, which wasn’t true.
“From there he pushed me on the bed and started playing with my breast when I tried to make noise, he started beating me and I was yelling.”
“When one of the renters in the house came to save me, my uncle butt him and they were taken to the Police station,” she narrated.
The wife of the defendant, Eliza Miehn, testified that she had no knowledge of the incident but averred that she got to know about the incident when they arrived at the Police station at which the time the victim told Police officers why the two men were in fistfight.
“I remembered her (Annie) telling me that her uncle came over her at night but I asked her if he did anything to her but she said no. And I asked if her uncle come if she can explained the same thing, and she said yes.
“But when my husband came the girl repeated what she previously said and when I asked him, he got angry and again I asked him what he was doing over the girl at night, he got more angrier so I told him that I will take the girl back Saturday.”
“It was the Saturday, the Police informed me that the girl was raped twice by my husband,” testified Eliza.
The defendant, taking the stand, testified denied the witnesses testimonies.
Statutory rape a crime that violates section 14.70 (a) (I) (ii) which states a person who has the sexual intercourse with another person (male or female) has committed rape.
Though statutory rape crime qualifies the defendant for life imprisonment, Judge Johnson chose to send the convict to 15 years in jail, of which he has served two years.
After the court’s ruling over the weekend, the lead prosecutors told reporters that one of the challenges in handling rape cases is getting victim and their families testify in open court.
Attorney Rosetta Neese Baikpeh said each day there is new rape case that approach the Sexual and Gender Based Violence Unit (SGBU) at the Ministry of Justice.
“Look at the wife of the defendant. She was brave and I applaud her for taking the witness stand against her husband. I’m sure she didn’t do that because she’s wicked, but she’s standing against the menace that continues to affect our society.
“Though it will disturb her as a wife psychologically, but the defendant was like a father to the victim, because she (victim) lived with the husband and his wife,” the female lawyer assert.
She furthered disclosed that about 300 cases are currently on trial docket for rape awaiting trial, but with one court assigned with a judge it’s difficult to fight against rape something she attributed to another challenge the unit is face with.
A 2016 report from the Ministry of Justice revealed that 22 cases were heard during the February 2016 term of court, of which 18 were won and 4 lost.
In the May term, 14 cases were tried and 10 won, while 4 were lost.