{"id":2133,"date":"2026-07-22T03:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T02:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=2133"},"modified":"2026-07-22T03:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T02:58:10","slug":"delta-court-jails-neighbor-12-years-for-raping-11-year-old-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=2133","title":{"rendered":"Delta Court Jails Neighbor 12 Years For Raping 11-Year-Old Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Princess Ogbu<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Delta State High Court has sentenced Ernest Okporu to 12 years imprisonment for raping an 11-year old girl after finding that the prosecution proved the charge  beyond reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a judgment delivered after reviewing the evidence before the court,the judge held that the victim testimony was credible ,consistent and sufficient corroborated by medical evidence and other surrounding circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court accepted the testimony of the medical doctor S.O Omoreyi ,who testified that the child\u2019s hymen had been freshly ruptured indicating forceful penetration,and that blood was present at the vaginal orifice. It  held that the medical findings independently supported the victims account of the assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge rejected the defense\u2019s argument that the absence of spermatozoa weakened the prosecution\u2019s case,Holding that under Nigerian law,Proof of the slightest penetration is sufficient to establish the offence of rape and that ejaculation is not a legal requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ ALSO:<\/strong> Police Rescue Kidnap Victim In Abraka, Launch Manhunt For Abductors<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The  court also dismissed the defence argument over the missing alleged \u201cblue corset\u201d and other minor inconsistencies saying they do not affect the prosecution\u2019s case .It held that only material contradictions capable of creating reasonable doubt could invalidate otherwise credible evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the judgement the victim had no reason to falsely accuse the defendant who was a neighbor known to her family.The court accepted the child\u2019s identification of the defendant,nothing that she had known him for years and  recognized him during the incident .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reaching its decision the court ruled that the prosecution established all the essential ingredients of rape under the Delta State violence against person (Prohibition) law,2020, including penetration,lack of consent and the identity of the offender.It noted that under the law ,a child under the age of 18 cannot legally consent to sexual intercourse .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court found that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and convicted Ernest Okporu as charged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In passing Sentence,the judge said the law prescribes a minimum jail term of 12 years for the offense .The court considered the victim\u2019s age,the breach of trust by the defendant as a Neigbour,the physical and emotional trauma suffered by the child ,and his lack of genuine remorse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Court consequently sentenced Okporu to 12 years imprisonment and ordered him to pay a 30,000 Naira statutory offender levy in accordance with the Administration of Criminal justice law 2022. The court also ordered that his name be entered into the Register of Convicted Sex Offenders maintained by the Honourable  Attorney-General of Delta State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Princess Ogbu A Delta State High Court has sentenced Ernest Okporu to 12 years imprisonment for raping an 11-year old girl after finding that the prosecution proved the charge  beyond reasonable doubt. In a judgment delivered after reviewing the evidence before the court,the judge held that the victim testimony was credible ,consistent and sufficient […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[143,560,217,524],"class_list":["post-2133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trendingnews","tag-delta-state","tag-jail-term","tag-judiciary","tag-rape-case"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2135,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2133\/revisions\/2135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}