Taekwondo coach fails to overturn 10-year jail term

Gavel

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Renowned taekwondo head coach Onesmus Safari Ngao has suffered a blow after his second attempt to quash a 10-year jail term for defilement hit a snag.

Ngao was jailed in 2018 after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a minor and engaging a herbalist to procure an abortion.

His second attempt to secure freedom failed after the Court of Appeal in Malindi declined to overturn the sentence that was imposed on him by a Magistrate Court three years ago.

Appellate judges Wanjiru Karanja, Daniel Musinga and Stephen Gatembu ruled that the appeal lacked merit because Ngao was correctly convicted and jailed for the offense.

“In our view, therefore, all the necessary ingredients that required proof on a charge of defilement were satisfied. We find no merit in this appeal and dismiss it in its entirety,” the judges said.

This was the second time Ngao attempted to have the conviction and sentence overturned after the initial one filed in the High Court in 2019 failed.

In the appellate court, he faulted the High Court for upholding his conviction in the absence of certified copies of the P3 form and the hospital discharge summary.

Ngao also lamented that the age of the minor’s injuries did not conform to the date he committed the offences.

He also complained that his case was handled by officers from Mtwapa Police Station as opposed to those from Watamu, where the incident happened.

But the judges held that the evidence presented in the case proved Ngao’s guilt as the medical report confirmed defilement and proof of recent conception.

“The documents that were produced before the trial court were original and did not require any certification. The prosecution was not done by the police but by the Directorate of Public Prosecutions,” the judges said.

The appellate judges also noted that police officers can testify in any court, irrespective of their workstation.  
Ngao, who is well known for his coaching career, sexually assaulted the girl during two taekwondo tournaments held in Watamu and Nairobi in 2015.

After the two ordeals, the court heard that Ngao administered a concoction to the minor to procure an abortion to cover up his criminal acts.

Until his jailing in 2018, Ngao was the sports coach, manager and administrator in a Coast county, according to his social media page.

He lured the pupil and sexually assaulted her on two occasions.

After the tablet he administered on the girl failed to stop her from conceiving, he approached a herbalist, who helped to terminate the pregnancy.

The shining career of the martial arts expert has now sunk following the two unsuccessful appeals that would see him spend 10 years in prison.

The three courts have held that there was evidence that he sexually assaulted the girl and administered a concoction to terminate her pregnancy.

The girl, aged 15 at the time, was among the children who had gone to participate in the taekwondo competitions.

Ngao booked them in separate rooms before preying on the victim on the night of November 20, 2015.

The girl said she was to share the room with another supposed pupil, who never made it to the room, which suggested there was a conspiracy between the coach and her schoolmate.