GBARNGA, Bong – Jurors at the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Gbarnga have arrived at a unanimous guilty verdict against Benjamin Duncan, 42, for raping his 11-year-old daughter.

The representative for the jurors said their decision was the result of evidence “including medical and police reports, as well as witnesses from the community who testified in court during the trial.”

Duncan raped the child on February 8 this year in Gbarnga, but he denied committing the act during preliminary police investigations.

Meanwhile, Bong’s county attorney, E. Wilkins Nah, has termed Duncan’s trial and guilty verdict as “a significant progress in the fight against sexual abuse against women and girls.”

Bong’s county attorney, E. Wilkins Nah. Photo: Moses Bailey.

Nah said the trial established that Duncan had been raping his daughter since December 25, 2017.

The child’s mother and Duncan have had a broken relationship; the woman moved to Monrovia to live while the victim stayed with Duncan in Gbarnga.

Even though the jurors reached a guilty verdict, Duncan has yet to be sentenced.

“He’s behind bars awaiting sentence. [The] sentence should be imposed in statutory time. I played my part; it is the judge now that has to come down with a sentence,” Nah told Radio Gbarnga on Wednesday.

Rape is hardly a rare crime among the cases on the docket of the Bong circuit court; last year, two persons, Konah Daniels, 24, and George Gbellie, 48, were charged and sent to court for statutory rapes.

Residents of Bong are now awaiting Duncan’s sentence, which will be announced by Bong’s resident circuit judge, Boima Kontoe.

Featured Photo by Moses Bailey