By- Aruna Rashed Toma Bangura
According to the police statistician, Inspector Smart Menjor, 2001 sexual penetration cases were recorded for the year ended 2022.
However, out the 2001 sexual penetration cases recorded Freetown East recorded 453 sexual penetration cases and Freetown West received and investigated 345 cases of sexual penetration, adding that for both Freetown East and West regions none of the cases of sexual penetration of a child was charged to court.
Inspector Smart Menjor disclosed that 490 cases were recorded for the Eastern region and out of the 490 cases recorded, 403 were charged to court, 11 cases closed, 15 cases kept review while 361 cases are still pending investigation and 1 case of sexual harassment was recorded and kept review, 13 rape case of which 1 case was sent to court, 1 case closed and 11 cases still under investigation.
The police statistician furthered that North East region received and investigated 303 cases of sexual penetration of a child and out of the said figure, 12 cases were charged to court, 15 kept in jail while 276 cases are still pending investigation.
Inspector Smart Menjor revealed that out of the 33,157 reported cases nationwide, 6,591 were received and sent to court by the Legal and Joint support department of the Sierra Leone police.
The Director of Corporate Affairs for the police, AIG Memunatu Bura Conteh Jalloh stated that the reason why some sexual penetration cases were not charged to court is as a result of the new sexual offenses act. She said that the act states that when the police investigate sexual penetration matters, they must send the file to the law officers department. She noted that until the Law officers bring the files back to them there is no way the police will have access to the files as that is the reason why some matters were not charged to court.
AIG Memuna Conteh Jalloh stated that unless in other cases the police do not just charge straight sexual penetration matters to court.