Former Bukwo chairman aggravated defilement case set for trial

The former Bukwo District chairman, Mr Julius Moses Chelimo has been sent to the High Court to face trial on charges of aggravated defilement and aggravated trafficking in children.

This was after the International Crimes Division of the High Court presided over by Justice Alice Komuhangi Khaukha confirmed the two charges against him.

"Having considered all the evidence disclosed by the prosecution, I find that it is sufficient to establish substantial grounds to believe that the accused person committed each of the offences he is charged with. The charges are accordingly confirmed against the accused and he is hereby referred for trial," she held.

“I also need to observe that it is true that the victim stated in her statement that she had a boyfriend called Anthony Amidu with whom she stayed in Kampala and Entebbe for some weeks and it is also true that she left the home of Amidu at the instance of the accused. However, she also revealed that the accused was also her boyfriend and when he picked her up from Kampala, he spent a night with her in Mbale in a hotel room and the two shared a bed,” Justice Komuhangi added.

Although the defence lawyer had noted that the disclosed evidence did not satisfy the ingredient of the age of the victim being 15, the judge held that the prosecution did not seek to rely on the age as the aggravating factor but on the fact that the accused is a person in authority over the victim, the reason to why they indicated Section 129 (4) of the Penal Code Act in the indictment.

The prosecution alleges that Mr Chelimo was the LCV Chairman of Bukwo District while the victim was a Senior Two student at Sebei College Tegeres in Bukwo, aged 15, and living with her parents.

Court documents indicate that in October 2021, Mr Chelimo lured her into a love affair enticing her with money, clothes, and phones and often caused her disappearance from her parents and ended up abandoning school.

It is prosecution evidence that Mr Chelimo on different occasions took the Victim to different places in Bukwo District from where he would have sexual intercourse with her.

“The victim's parents reported her disappearance to the police and when she resurfaced, she revealed how the accused had been having sexual intercourse with her. She also revealed how the accused at some point harboured her in Budaka at his sister's home to hide her from her parents. It was upon that background that the accused was arrested and indicted accordingly,” reads in part the court documents.

Among the exhibits that the state intends to rely on during the hearing include; 25 witness statements, the victim's birth certificate, report cards, statements of police officers who investigated the case, charge and caution statements of the accused, police forms, DNA Analysis Report and exhibit slips.

According to the charge sheet, Mr Chelimo between October 2021 and May 2022 in the districts of Bukwo, Mbale and Kampala recruited or transported or harboured a girl child aged 15 years, by means of deception or abuse of power or position of vulnerability for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

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