A 17-year-old boy was sentenced to one month in prison Monday, after he pleaded guilty at the Magburaka Magistrate Court to assaulting an elderly woman.

Saidu Turay was sent to Approved School, a juvenile detention center in Freetown, the Sierra Leone capital, by Magistrate Ibrahim Yillah of The Judiciary of Sierra Leone for the assault on 70-year-old Mariatu Conteh. He’ll serve his sentence there.

Turay, a resident of No. 2 Ahmadiyya St., Magburaka, north of the country, was charged with one count of assault, according to court records.
After pleading guilty, Turay appealed to the court for mercy.

“My lord, I’m a first-time offender. Please forgive me,” Turay said. But Yillah sentenced Turay – who wasn’t representated by a lawyer at the proceedings.

“Having pleaded guilty, I’m sentencing you to one month of imprisonment,” Magistrate Yillah said. The State said on Sept. 24, 2021, around 8 a.m.,
Turay assaulted Conteh.

“Turay and a colleague were fighting at No. 2 Ahmadiyya St., Magburaka, close to the residence of the complaint, Mabinty Conteh,” police records say.

As Turay and the colleague were fighting, police say Conteh, the elderly woman, tried to break the two male fighters apart. It was then that Turay intentionally took his slippers and hit the old woman in the face, according to police records.

A medical report tendered in court during the proceedings stated the 70-year-old woman suffered serious pain in her face.

The court proceedings were held as a bench trial – State’s prosecutor Sgt. Patrick Komba Saffa (7718) proscuted the matter.