The trial of Olufemi Olaleye, the doctor alleged to have defiled his 15-year-old wife’s niece continued on Wednesday as a medical doctor from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Oyebimpe Akinbunmi, told the court that the pattern of injury on the victim’s private parts showed repeated forceful penetration.
Akinbunmi, the fourth witness in the case before an Ikeja Special Offences Court, examined the victim after the matter was referred by the Gender Section of the Lagos State Police Command.
Olaleye, the Managing Director of Optimal Cancer Care Foundation, is facing two counts of defilement and sexual assault by penetration.
In her testimony, Akinbunmi said medical tests revealed that the victim was sexually abused by the defendant, adding that based on the history the survivor provided, “the major findings were in the genital area. The hymen was angular, which means ring-shaped and slightly estrogenised. There was a notch at 9 ‘O’clock position on the hymen and transection at one ‘O’clock position at the hymen. The vaginal was also unduly visible more than one-third of the lower vagina.
“The pattern of injury that I saw was consistent with repeated forceful penetrative injury into the vagina, an ongoing forceful long penetrative injury to the vagina was what I documented and reported to the centre.”
The witness further said the victim narrated how she was abused.
“She said he usually called her in the middle of the night when others were sleeping to come downstairs and that he would remove his trousers and ask her to suck his pen**. He sometimes also puts his finger in her private parts.
“Then, she (the victim) said he also applied something like lubricant and he would penetrate her private parts with his pen**. This she said happened about four times and he would also give her pills and threaten her that she would die if she told anyone,” Akinbunmi added.
During cross-examination by the defence counsel, Babatunde Ogala, SAN, the witness said the survivor did not reveal the name of the defendant as her abuser, adding that she also could not say when the abuse started or stopped.
Akinbunmi, however, said the patterns of the injury on the victim showed that the penetration was consistent and repeated, adding that several factors might affect the healing process as there could be bruises or abrasions.
Earlier, the Investigative Police Officer, Esther Igbineweka, told the court that the medical report filed on April 15, 2022, which revealed forceful penetration, was conducted after the victim took the officer around the places in the house where she was abused.
“While the investigation was still on, the complainant opted to travel for a programme out of the country. Based on this, my OC, Agboola, with the consent of the complainant, released the defendant on bail.
“In the course of my investigation, I found out that the complainant and the defendant are married with two kids. I also found the victim is a niece of the complainant and that she started living with them in early 2020 during the COVID-19 and the defendant is a doctor and that the incident was not reported anywhere before March 29, 2022, when the case came to my table.
“The victim did not report the case of indecent assault treatment to anybody. I also found out that the defendant denied all the allegations of defilement against the victim.”
During cross-examining, the IPO said the victim wrote the statement when she was 18 years old.
Ogala questioned Igbineweka over her claim that the defendant wrote in his statement that the survivor was having sexual intercourse with one Mr Meshach.
The officer said, “At that time of investigation, the said Meshach was no longer working with the Olaleyes and I asked the complainant about the effort to contact him and she said it proved abortive.”
Justice Ramon Oshodi adjourned the case till January 26, 2023.
