Baba Ijesha defiled minor twice, Child Forensic Expert tells court

Baba Ijesha, right, in court Tuesday with Kehinde Aghedo

A child forensic interview expert, Mrs Anike Ajayi-Kayode, on Tuesday, narrated before an Ikeja Special Offences Court how Nollywood actor Olanrewaju James (alias Baba Ijesha) allegedly groomed and defiled a minor (name withheld).

Ajayi-Kayode is the Executive Director of the Cece Yara Foundation, a non-governmental organisation founded to prevent child sexual abuse and provide emergency intervention for children.

Testifying as the third prosecution witness, Ajayi-Kayode told the court that she was a certified child forensic interview specialist.

She said she had participated in over 25 child forensic interviews.

Led in evidence by Mrs Olayinka Adeyemi, Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Ajayi-Kayode said that the alleged victim was relaxed, cooperative and could recall events when she was being interviewed.

“The clinal presentation of child sexual abuse was quite evident. The perpetrator engaged the child in sexual activity when she was seven years old, on two occasions.

“On the 19th of April 2021, he sexually harassed her, touching her body. He told her: ‘I touched you some years back, you are so grown, so developed. Do you have a boyfriend? We have some unfinished business.

These are the clinical presentations of child sexual abuse.

“These are the dynamics of child sexual abuse and the modus operandi of perpetrators – inculcation of secrecy, intimidation, threat or coercion,” she said.

The expert noted that child sexual abuse involved only the victim and the perpetrator, adding that because of his or her vulnerability, a child might not be able to comprehend the magnitude of the offence.