Judge Frees 24-year-old Accused Of Raping 13-year-old Teenage Girl

A judge has set free a 24 year old man after admitting to having carnal knowledge of a 13-year-old teenage girl. His reasons for setting the man free has left many people in shock.

According to The Nairobian, Malindi High Court judge, Justice Said Chitembwe, ordered that 24-year-old Martin Charo be freed after ruling that the 13-year-old girl he had s*x with “enjoyed the s*x.”
People have been left in shock after a Kenyan man, who appealed a 20-year-sentence after he was found guilty of having s*x with a minor was freed. The man was told to go and all charges against him overturned.
It was gathered that Charo was jailed in 2012 for defiling Elizabeth Ngala, but the judge observed that the two had a long, mutual relationship and her age had become a non-issue.


In his 10-page landmark ruling, the judge interpreted the teenager’s behavior as that of a “full grown woman who was already engaging and enjoying sex with men, despite being under 18 years and thus by law, could not be deemed to be in a position to consent to sexual intercourse.”

Justice Chitembwe, however, ruled that where a child behaves like an adult and willingly sneaks into men’s houses for purposes of having s*x, the court ought to treat “such a child as a grown-up who knows what she is doing.”

“It would be unfair to have Charo serve 20 years behind bars, yet Elizabeth was after him for s*x,” ruled Justice Chitembwe.

“She seems not to have been complaining about the incident. She had only gone to the appellant’s home to have s*x, only for her brothers to interfere,” Justice further Chitembwe ruled. 

The ruling was made possible after a revelation by Elizabeth in the previous case where she had gone to the beach together with her siblings on January 2, 2012, only for her to dodge them and sneak into Charo’s house.
“Her brother went there and asked her to leave, but the appellant said she was not there. They later escaped and went to the appellant’s parents’ home where they stayed for three days and used to have s*x,” the ruling states.

She later went back home and told her father where she had been. She was taken to the police and then to hospital. “It was her evidence that she had known the appellant for about three years as he did not live very far from their home. It was her evidence that she went to see the appellant, have sex and then go back home,” noted the judge.

The court was informed how her brother peeped into Charo’s house when searching for her sister and saw her hiding under the bed at 10am. Charo got out and shouted that there were thieves and they ran away.

Initial medical assessment indicated that “there was no evidence of spermatozoa. She was having her monthly periods during the examination.”

Charo denied committing the offence and in his ruling, Justice Chitembwe allowed his appeal. The judge acquitted Charo noting that the complainant had known the accused for three years and section 8 (6) of sexual offences act does not mean that the accused has to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he took steps to ascertain the age of the complainant.

The judge ruled that circumstances of the case hardly paint the picture that someone was defiled. Instead, he noted that the relationship was a mutual agreement. He faulted why Charo was note reported after the incident took place. He also found out that the parents of both Charo and Elizabeth were aware of the relationship. So after taking all these into consideration, he set Charo free as he believes the girl was enjoying the relationship and s*x.