hold as fact. I am therefore satisfied that the prosecution has established
the second element beyond reasonable doubt.
The third element is whether the sexual encounter was consensual or not. It
is the evidence of the prosecutrix that the accused was her boy friend, and
that she refused to tell her mother of the incident until she drank „blue
washing powder‟ which aggravated her abdominal pains. She admitted
under cross examination that she would not have revealed same to her
mother but for the complications which arose after she drank the „blue
washing powder‟. She further admitted having lied to the police as a way
of protecting the accused. Apart from the „minor lacerations‟ there were no
other injuries to suggest that the sexual intercourse was accompanied by
the kind of violence suggested by the prosecutrix in her testimony before
me (see POSU v. THE STATE (2011) LPELR-SC. 134/2010). Rather, the
defensive and protective attitude of the prosecutrix towards the accused is
poles apart with that of a victim of unwanted sex who in most cases would
immediately want to see their aggressors punished. This protective attitude
is indicative and reflective of the fact that the prosecutrix had something to
hide about the sexual encounter. From the circumstances of this case it
seems obvious to me that, what the prosecutrix was hiding is the fact that
she consented to the sexual intercourse with the accused. I watched the
prosecutrix carefully and she did not appear to me to be an innocent lad. I
am convinced by the peculiar facts of this case that the sexual intercourse
was consensual and this I shall hold as a fact. The prosecution therefore
7