JWM V. REPUBLIC

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

1. This is a second appeal by the appellant arising from his conviction and sentence by the Magistrate’s Court sitting in Kathumani, which was upheld by the High Court on first appeal.

2. A brief background of this case is that the appellant is the father to the victim, DM (PW1) who was aged 15 years old when the offence is alleged to have been committed. The appellant had been separated from DM’s mother in October, 2007 and had married a second wife. PW1 lived with her younger sister AM (PW2), and their father would occasionally visit them on alternative days at their two-roomed house.

3. On the 10th of April 2011, the appellant visited PW1 and PW2. That night since he was sleeping over as usual, he ate and later requested for water to bathe, which PW1 gave him and then spread a mattress for him to sleep on the floor in the sitting room. The girls went to sleep but the appellant is said to have refused to sleep on the floor insisting he wanted to share the bed with…