A mobile court in Western Equatoria State’s Mundri West County on Monday sentenced a 16-year-old boy to two years in reformatory school for sexually assaulting a girl there.
Michael David, the convict appeared before the court on Monday 18 April 2022 after more than a month in detention.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday, the Mobile Court Judge Andrew Joshua Lado, said the boy was found guilty of sexually assaulting a girl his agemate.
“I sentenced Michael David to be sent to reformatory school for two years effective from 18 of April 2022. According to section 181 of the Child Act 2008 read together with section 247 of the 2008 Penal Code, the convict must pay the victim SSP 400,000 as compensation through civil proceedings,” Joshua said.
“The convict Michael David committed sexual intercourse with a lady of 16 years and she became pregnant. David is also 16 years old and that is why we amendment the Child Act because the underage is not to be sentenced for 14 years like in the Penal Code Act,” he added.
Meanwhile, the same court sentenced two murder convicts to 15 and 5 years in prison on 14 April 2022.
Both Benjamin Sunday and Stephen Galiba Makaka had been detained before they appeared before the court last Thursday.
“Mr. Benjamin Sunday has been sentenced to 15 years in prison according to Section 206 of the Penal Code of 2008 and the convict is to pay the relatives of the deceased an amount of SSP 5,000,000 as compensation because of the murder he committed in 2013,” a court order seen by Radio Tamazuj read in part.
Sunday had been in detention since he was arrested on 15 September 2013.
Galiba was also found guilty and sentenced to serve five years in jail with effect from 24th October 2019 by the same court. He was ordered to pay SSP 3,000,000 as compensation.
The mobile court in Mundri was launched at the beginning of the month by the county authorities in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to tackle a substantial backlog of cases in the county since 2015.