By Lamin Sanneh
Justice I Janneh of the High Court delivered a crushing verdict Tuesday, May 5, 2026 sending one Mbye Manneh to life in prison for raping his 15-year-old niece.
The judge called it “a grave betrayal of trust within a family home.” The law called it rape under Section 3(2)(b) of the Sexual Offences Act, 2013. The facts called it monstrous.
Manneh, who posed as a father figure in their shared compound at Kunkujang Keitaya, Kombo North, used that trust as a weapon.
The court found the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. The victim was 15. The convict held power. The crime was absolute.
The girl was a student. According to the court, Manneh called her into his room to wash his clothes then he pulled her inside, shoved her onto the bed, stuffed a towel in her mouth to smother her screams, ripped off her underwear, and raped her.
Doctors at Fajikunda Health Centre confirmed it. Broken hymen. Watery vaginal discharge. Penetration. The medical certificate became Exhibit A.
The victim, PW3, testified in camera. Her account was “clear, consistent, and unshaken.” Four prosecution witnesses backed it. The medical officer corroborated it. Under Section 180(2)(a) of the Evidence Act, that was enough.
Manneh’s defense collapsed. Counsel M.N.M. Jane argued no proof of penetration, no eyewitness, no original doctor for crossexamination. Manneh took the stand alone. He denied everything. He claimed the grandmother framed him because he refused to pay D25,000 for the girl’s “treatment.” He claimed he was at work.
Justice Janneh dismantled him. His story of movements between Kunkujang and Bakoteh was riddled with contradictions. His alibi was “vague and raised belatedly.” The victim was credible. The grandmother saw the aftermath. The medical report sealed it.
The court was blunt on the law. She was under 16. That alone is a coercive circumstance under the Sexual Offences Act. Consent is irrelevant. The slightest penetration is rape. The fact that he was her uncle — her “Papa Mbye” — proved identity and abuse of trust.
In allocutus, the defence begged for mercy. First-time offender. Breadwinner. Remorseful. They cited lighter sentences in other cases.
Prosecutors W.S. Madu and W.M.K. Drammeh demanded the maximum. This was a child. This was a home. This was trust turned into terror.
Justice Janneh agreed. Following the Chief Justice’s October 2023 Sentencing Guidelines for Rape and Section 4(1)(a)(iii)(cc) of the Sexual Offences Act, life imprisonment was mandatory.
The aggravating factors were overwhelming: her age, the home setting, the betrayal, the coercion, the lifelong trauma and stigma. Mitigation did not come close.
“The seriousness of the offense, particularly the abuse of trust and the vulnerability of the victim, cannot be outweighed by the mitigating considerations presented,” Janneh ruled.
“No substantial and compelling circumstances exist to depart from the mandatory minimum.”
