The conviction of Italian national Paolo Camelini, who was charged with defiling a 3-year-old kid in Kisumu’s Manyatta Estate in February 2022, was affirmed by a high court in Kisumu on Monday in response to his appeal.
The Italian national was given a life sentence for defiling the youngster, but he appealed because the lower court erred in law by allowing a third party to speak on the victim’s behalf.
He further argued that the repeated use of the victim’s name “Paolo” was inadequate evidence to identify the appellant and that the trial court had failed to grasp that the intermediary’s oral testimony wasn’t on behalf of the victim.
Lady Justice Roseline Aburili agreed with the lower court that the victim could not testify since she was a minor and under the age of three; as a result, a witness had to testify on the victim’s behalf, and the testimony of the witness was the victim’s evidence.
The prosecution, led by Senior Principal Prosecution Counsel John Okoth, was found to have established beyond a reasonable doubt the identity of the appellant, proof of defilement, and the victim’s age.
However, the Court overturned the lower court’s life sentence and replaced it with a 30-year sentence, stating that the lower court had ignored the appellant’s status as a first-time offender.
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