A journalist in Kisumu has distanced himself from defilement charges levelled against him saying that it is the minor’s father who should be charged.
Absalom Omollo has told a Kisumu Court that he was working on a news expose detailing how the minor’s father had been sexually and physically abusing her only for the tables to be turned leaving him being the accused.
Omollo who was testifying in a case where he is accused of defiling and indecently touching a minor said that the father took advantage of his contact with the complainant while working on the story to turn against him.
He said the charges facing him were motivated by malice and hatred.
“Your honour, the father should be the one standing in the dock to answer to the charges I am facing right now. I was just doing my duty as a journalist,” Omollo told Kisumu Principal Magistrate Jesse Nyangah.
Omollo who is out on a Sh100,000 bond asked the court to follow the leads he had established in his story to determine the truth.
The court heard on Tuesday that the minor had run away from their Polyview Estate home and sought refuge at a neighbour’s home after his father physically abused her.
“According to my findings while filing the story, I learned that the minor had been defiled and physically abused by the father on several occasions. She decided to run away from home as a way of putting an end to the abuse,” said Omollo.
Omollo produced a video interview of the girl confessing to be have been sleeping with the father but the prosecution objected on the grounds that the defendant lacked the qualification to produce such evidence.
Nyangah however directed that the video be played in court during the next hearing after it was proved that Omollo is a qualified TV producer.
Omollo who was by then working with Radio Lake Victoria denied committing the offence on November 24 2013.
A doctor’s report produced in court during an earlier hearing however revealed that the child had not be defiled.
The case will continue on February 29, 2016.