An Ado Ekiti High Court on Tuesday ordered the detention of a 17-year-old who defiled a three-year-old girl.

In a judgment, Justice Adekunle Adeleye held that the teenager (name withheld) should be detained at the Juvenile Centre, Ado Ekiti.
Adeleye said that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that the teenager defiled the toddler on May 30, 2020, at Osi Ekiti, in Ekiti State.
He, however, held that the defendant had not attained the age of consent at the time he committed the offence.

Earlier, in her testimony, the toddler’s mother, a fish seller, said that she noticed a sudden change in her daughter’s movement on the day the offence was committed.
”I returned home at 5:00 p.m. on that day and discovered that my daughter’s movement was unstable. I checked her underwear and found a bloodstain.
”I also saw semen on her thighs. When I probed further, she mentioned the young man and pointed at him.
”Some people in the neighbourhood even testified to have seen my daughter playing around with him,” she testified.
She said that the teenager admitted to having committed the crime when the case was reported to the police.

In his submission after the conviction of the teenager, his counsel, Mr Paul Ayantoyinbo, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy.
Ayantoyinbo urged the court to consider that his client was 15 years old at the time he committed the offence.
Defilement is punishable under Section 31(2) of the Child’s Right Law, Cap. C7, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.