Court revokes Mojadigo bail
28 Oct 2024
Principal Magistrate Queen Moanga of Mochudi Magistrate Court has revoked Goitsekgosi Mojadigo’s bail and remanded him in custody.
The accused is facing four counts of defilement of girls under the age of 18 years and one count of rape. The offences are alleged to have been committed between January and May 2024 after the accused had spent a short stint in prison.
Mojadigo was granted conditional bail in July and the case was set for trial in November.
One of the bail conditions was that the accused should not interfere with witnesses, including the alleged victims and their families.
Giving grounds for revoking the bail and remanding the accused in custody, Ms Moanga said the state had alleged that the accused was interfering with witnesses, especially a 16-year-old alleged victim, who recently delivered a baby.
Ms Moanga said evidence by the investigating officer was that on October 24, the investigation officer while conducting pre-cognition with state witnesses, the complainant said she communicated with the accused.
She said a statement was recorded from the witness who alleged to have communicated with the accused and a third party, Jackson Langa, who was alleged to have enabled the communication between the accused and the complainant.
Evidence before court was that Jackson, who is the accused assistant pastor, came to the alleged victim’s residence on October 22 at around 11am, and that Jackson was said to have made a call to someone with his mobile phone.
After making the call, Jackson was said to have received a call and that the caller requested to be connected with the alleged victim. The caller was said to have asked the alleged victim to divert from her initial statement during trial.
The alleged caller also asked the alleged victim if she was in short of anything as he was willing to assist. It was alleged that Jackson delivered the requested items, which included diapers, baby wipes and Vaseline and also handed over a P20 note to the alleged victim.
The recorded statement, which was presented as one of the grounds to revoke the bail, was that during the visit to the complainant, it emerged during their conversation that the complainant had indicated that she was missing the accused and asked if it was possible for him to visit.
Ms Moanga said Jackson had acknowledged that he called the accused and told him he was with the complainant and that she wanted to talk to him. After the conversation, the accused was said to have sent P400 to the complainant via e-wallet and that Jackson was sent to buy some baby items and snacks with the money.
In another recorded statement from Jackson on October 25, he told the investigating team that he heard the accused telling the alleged victim to change her statement during trial.
In disputing revoking Mojadigo’s bail, defence attorney, Mr Sesupo Masaka said the complainant was the one in pursuant of the accused. He said the prosecution wanted to revoke his client’s bail on the basis of actions of their own witness.
The defence also argued that the witness initiated the call to the accused and that it was not true for the prosecution to say Mojadigo had violated one of his bail conditions.
Mr Masaka said the prosecution witnesses were the ones troubling the accused and putting him in a predicament. Additionally, the defence said it could have emerged during pre-cognition that the prosecution was realising that its evidence against the accused was wanting and that they fabricated something against him.
Ms Moanga said it was not disputed that the call to the accused was from Jackson, a prosecution witness, and that the issue was how the call came to be made.
In her view, Ms Moanga said the origin of the call did not have a heavier bearing on the matter than what actually took place during the call.
She said since the accused was made aware of the presence of the complainant, he should have refrained from speaking to her. “Not only did the accused speak to the complainant, but offered money for the baby provisions and told the complainant to change her testimony,” she said. Ends
Source : BOPA
Author : Moshe Galeragwe
Location : Gaborone
Event : court case
Date : 28 Oct 2024
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