By Mohamed Foday Conteh
A university student and defence witness, Mariama Edwina Conteh has told Justice Momoh-Jah Stevens that the incest matter between her father and her younger sister was a plot hatched by the victim and her biological mother.
Conteh, daughter of the father and according to court records a sister to the alleged victim was testifying as the second defence witness on Wednesday 3rd November this year in the ongoing incest matter at the Sexual Offences Model Court in Freetown.
The second defence witness was led in evidence by lawyer Claudius Campbell. She said that it was the alleged victim that told her that she and her mother were planning to kill the accused. She said the victim told her that she intended to either disgrace the father or make him mentally deranged.
The student also told the judge that the alleged victim was not her biological sister but rather a foster sister adopted by her father when she was around five months old.
The witness claimed her father rejected the child being his and that she was carrying a different surname, although the mother insisted she was his child.
She said that there was one time that the 17-year-old alleged victim seemed to be having some spiritual issues and requested she be taken to Kambia for treatment. She said the accused initially asked her to take the girl to Kambia but refused.
The father, Mohamed Conteh is standing trial for incest. The prosecution is alleging that the father sexually penetrated her daughter in Lungi and Kambia in 2017 and sometime in 2018.The victim testified in court that the accused is her father and he took her to Lungi and Kambia for cure from alleged witchcraft. She said it was in Lungi that the father first penetrated her and continued the abuse at a certain hotel in Kambia which eventually led to her becoming pregnant.
The dad was the first defence witness. He denied the allegations for which he was arraigned for and told the judge she was not his biological daughter.Justice Stevens adjourned the matter for today, Friday 5th November with defence set to lead to their third witness.
Copyright © Politico Online (05/11/21)
