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- Oct 6, 2011
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A court in Murang’a has sentenced a primary school teacher to 90 years in prison after finding him guilty of sexually assaulting nine pupils.
John Gichia Mugi, 23, was convicted of indecently assaulting 10 boys of Muthiria Primary School in Kiharu Constituency on various dates between January and May 2015.
The court jailed him for nine years for each of the ten counts.
The victims, aged between 13 and 16 years, had testified that the teacher, who was also their boarding master, would lure them and fondle their private parts after night preps as he kissed them.
Resident Magistrate Jesse Masiga, who handed him the stiff sentence said the accused deserved a deterrent sentence, adding that every count attracted a jail term of nine years.
HEINOUS OFFENCE
The magistrate said the teacher had breached the trust bestowed on him by parents, adding that the offence was too heinous.
“The prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that you had sexually assaulted the boys,” Mr Masiga said.
‘I sentence you to serve a 10 years prison term for each of the nine counts of sexual assault. The sentences will run consecutively,” he added as he read the sentence.
The matter came to light after one of the victims refused to be left in the school by his parents who had attended a parents’ meeting.
Upon probing, the pupil revealed how the teacher was indecently assaulting them at night when others were asleep.
The teacher, who was employed by the school’s board of management, is said to have fled after the boys exposed him.
Eleven pupils came forward and exposed the teacher but the court later struck out one of them due to lack of sufficient evidence.
MEDICAL RECORDS
Medical records from Muriranjas Hospital showed that the pupils had been indecently assaulted but were not molested.
They narrated to the court how the teacher made attempts to molest them in their dormitories but they were able to resist him.
The school’s headteacher was found guilty of professional misconduct and discontinued from service by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) after he tried to cover up the case.
On mitigation, Gichia told the court that the pupils conspired with some teachers to frame him, insisting that he was innocent.
Through lawyer J N Mbuthia, Mr Gichia said there was rivalry between him and three other teachers after he was elevated to head the science department.
Dismissing his conspiracy allegations, the magistrate said that the kids had a cordial relationship with the teacher adding that reporting sexual offences was humiliating in nature that no person can lie about it.
Mr Gichia added that he was his family’s breadwinner and was still pursuing further studies.
He also told the court that his strong Christian faith would not allow him to engage in such shameful acts and that pupils also disliked his high handedness.
His parents, who could not control their emotions, broke down as he was whisked into the waiting prison truck to start his new life behind bars.
Source: Daily Nation
