Court Sets Aside Life Imprisonment Sentence To 30 Years In Jail For Italian Man Who Defiled A 3-Year-Old Boy

Kisumu High Court has today upheld the judgement by Winam Magistrates Court against an appeal by Italian national Paolo Camelini on the grounds that the appeal lacked merit and that the prosecution proved the case beyond reasonable doubt.

The Italian national was sentenced to life imprisonment for the offence of defiling a 3-year-old boy in February 2022 but appealed on the grounds that the lower court erred in law by allowing an intermediary to testify on behalf of the victim.

He also urged that the trial court failed to recognize that the oral evidence by the intermediary wasn’t for the victim and that the repeated use of the name ‘Paolo’ by the victim was insufficient evidence to identify the appellant.

However, Lady Justice Roseline Aburili agreed with the lower court that the victim, being a minor aged 3 years, could not testify, thus a need for an intermediary to testify on behalf of the victim and that the evidence adduced by the intermediary was that of the victim.

The court further ruled that the prosecution, led by SPPC John Okoth, proved the evidence of both defilement and the identity of the appellant as well as the age of the victim beyond reasonable doubt.

The Court, however, set aside the life imprisonment that had been issued by the lower court and substituted it with 30 years imprisonment, saying the lower court did not consider the fact that the appellant was a first offender.