Testifying before Justice Monfred Sesay Pathologist, Dr. Simeon Owizz Koroma, said 4-year-old Amma Mensah was raped before being killed.

Dr. Koroma was testifying against Lahai Kamara as the third prosecution witness at the High Court in Freetown.

The pathologist revealed in court that the 4-year-old hymen was bleeding and severely ruptured

He said the postmortem result revealed that the young girl had bruises on her neck muscles and signs of tears on her spinal cord. He added that while there was no fracture on the head of the girl, the neck and limbs were ‘massively swollen’.

The doctor concluded that the child was manually strangled to death after being sexually abused.

Detective Inspector Unisa Tarawally was the second prosecution witness who testified at an earlier sitting against the 30-year-old accused.

The police inspector in evidence in chief said they first received a report that the 4-year-old girl had gone missing and that they immediately started their investigation.

He said it was during that period that the then Local Unit Commander (LUC) at Adonkia Police Station, Superintendent Ambrose Sovula informed him that the remains of the young girl have been found at Upper Gbendembu, Goderich.

According to Politico, the Inspector said a team of police officers including him went to the scene where they met the father of the deceased child. He added that the deceased was lying on 2 dry sticks and that they treated the said sticks as exhibits to aid their investigation.

He also added that two empty cement sacs were used to cover the face of the dead child and that the Scene of Crime (SOC) officer took photographs of the scene. He noted that the body of the child had started decaying when it was discovered.

The police officer said that they were together with the father of the girl went to the Connaught Hospital where a post-mortem examination was conducted in order to ascertain the cause of death. He said that after the examination, a cause of death certificate was issued to him by Dr Simeon Owizz Koroma and that it has been in his custody ever since.

The detective stated that, it was on the 4th July 2017, based on their investigation, that they arrested the accused and that they obtained a statement from him at the police station.

He said that during the cause of their investigation, they went to the house of the accused where they found oil under a shoe rag suspected to be from a decomposed body and human hair glued to the floor. He said that this raised their suspicion since the child’s corpse had no hair on the back of the lower scalp.

From the said statement, the accused denied the allegation when put to him by the police. The building contractor denied knowing the deceased child and further asked that he has never set his eyes on her.

The accused told the police when they found sticks in his compound that were similar to those found at the scene that they belonged to a certain David Kamara who was a security guard.

He told the police that the suspected decomposed oil found at his apartment was a stain from palm oil which he normally used for cooking.

The accused was initially granted bail, but it was rescinded by the judge on the 20th October 2021.

The judge refused to grant bail to the 30-year-old contractor and sent him on remand as he adjourned the matter for the fourth prosecution witness to appear.

Kamara was arraigned in court because the prosecution believes that he murdered Amma Mensah on the 28th of June 2017 in Freetown, Western Area.