A secondary school teacher in Lagos has been sentenced to to seven years imprisonment by the Ikeja Special Offences Court, the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN said in a report.
Sexual assault is a grave offense in the state which recently toughens its laws to prevent women and child abuse.
Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo sentenced one Idowu Daniel after he was found guilty of fondling the breast of a 16-year-old student in his school.
The judge refused to accept the plea of the convict that he has turned a new leaf, asking that the court tempers justice with mercy.
The court however failed to convict Daniel of the allegation of sexual abuse leveled against him by the prosecutors on the basis that the state failed to prove, even though the judge noted that the convict made a confessional statement that he actually sexually assaulted the minor.
He did not achieve penetration, the judge said, adding however that it was wrong for Daniel to touch the teenager in a suggestive manner.
According to Taiwo, “The defendant admitted to have fondled the breast of the victim twice and tried to have sex with her but could not penetrate as she was a virgin.
“The defendant is hereby convicted on the charge of sexual assault of a child”, Justice Taiwo ruled yesterday. You are a teacher and you were touching the breast of your student. You would have gone for life if the victim had come to court to testify.”