Lagos court jails teacher for life over defilement of eight-year-old pupil

The Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, Ikeja, has sentenced a school teacher, Nwatu Isaac, to life imprisonment for defiling an eight-year-old pupil of El-Bossaa Nursery and Primary School, Epe.

Justice Rahman Oshodi, who delivered the judgment on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, also ordered that Isaac’s name be registered in the Sexual Offenders Register maintained by Lagos State.

According to the statement by Lagos DSVA on Friday, the order was made “in line with Sections 33 and 38 of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency Law, 2021.”

The court found Isaac guilty of defiling the child on March 10, 2022, after the prosecution established its case beyond reasonable doubt.

In his judgment, Justice Oshodi held that the prosecution had proved the offence beyond reasonable doubt, establishing that the survivor was a child and that Isaac had sexual intercourse with her,” the statement said.

The court found the testimony of the survivor, who was nine years old when she testified, credible and consistent.

“She identified Isaac in court and gave a clear account of how he, whom she knew as ‘Master Isaac’, took her into the school toilet and sexually assaulted her,” the statement added.

Justice Oshodi also relied on evidence from the survivor’s mother, who noticed blood on her daughter’s underwear and vagina shortly after she returned home from school.

The statement said medical evidence from the Mirabel Centre “corroborated the evidence of penetration.”

The court rejected Isaac’s denial that he went beyond the school gate on the day of the incident, noting that his own evidence placed him at the school at the material time.

The statement said the survivor also identified Isaac as “the person who took her into the toilet.”

The court further rejected his defence of alibi, as well as suggestions that the survivor could have been sexually abused by her stepsister or that the school toilet was too small for the offence to have occurred.

During sentencing, Oshodi held that Isaac had abused the trust placed in him by the survivor and her family.

The statement said the judge noted that Isaac “was once her teacher and was also entrusted by parents in the community to transport their children.”

Oshodi further directed the prosecution to take “immediate steps” under the Victim Assistance and Witness Protection Law, 2022, to secure “whatever protection and support the survivor and her family require.”

Isaac was prosecuted under Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, which prescribes life imprisonment for anyone who has unlawful sexual intercourse with a child.