PW4- Fabakary Gibba testified that he is the father of the complainant.
That he is a senior teacher at Ndemban Lower Basic School where the
accused is also teaching. Witness testified that during the Christmas
holidays of December 2009, and whilst he was at Serrekunda, he had
received a call from the guardian of his daughter at Brikama who had
wanted to talk to him on his way back home. That he had referred her to
his wife at Ndemban. That back at Ndemban, he was told by his wife that
his daughters guardian wanted to tell him that his daughter was
pregnant that he was unhappy when he saw her because she had not
completed school that her education had to stop when it was time for her
delivery.
Under cross-examination, PW4 testified that his daughter was born in
1992 and that she was registered in 2003 because they live in the
provinces where she was born and it was not easy to get a birth
certificate back then because you had to come to Banjul for it. P.W4 also
testified that you could use a birth certificate a clinic card or even the
parents could be asked the date of birth of the child when registering a
child in school. In answer to question put to him, PW4 testified that he
could remember the date of registration of the complainant because she
has a case of concern and was in court and that the date was not made
up very late in the day for the purpose of this case.
PW5 Sergent Kaddy Badjie testified that she is with the police child
welfare under the Crime Management Unit. That she remembered her
office investigating the case of the accused person. That her office had on
the 23rd of March 2010 made a request signed by her O/C Yamundow
Jagne Joof to the R.V.T.H for the determination of the age of the
complainant. That her O/C is currently in Darfur but she will be able to
recognise the document. The said document was tendered and admitted
in evidence upon identification.
At the close of the case for the prosecution, the accused opened his
defence. It is the testimony of the accused that he is a teacher but is
currently not teaching and is at the Gambia College pursuing a Primary
Teacher’s Certificate. He stated that he disagrees with all that was said
about him in the court. In his testimony, he explained that in 2009, the
complainant was always passing by his house around 5.pm everyday at
Ndemban Village where he was teaching. That the complainant used to
stroll by going no where. That one day she passed him sitting at the
corridor of his house and on her return she told him that she needed
money to go for holidays to the Kombos because her father had told her
that he was not going to give any to her. The accused stated further that
the complainant told him that she would do something for him if he gave
her the fare and that he had told her to come back again. That the next
day, at night whilst he was going to the shop they collided and the
complainant told him that she would come to his house after going to
watch a film. It is his testimony that around 11:00pm that time the
complainant came to his house, found him writing in his sitting room