Freetown, 20 October 2026. The Legal Aid Board (LAB) has secured the discharge of a 70-year old visually impaired man (blindman) charged with Sexual Penetration (SP) from a Freetown High Court presided over by Honourable Justice Manuela A.J Harding.
The beneficiary, Idrissa Kabia, a resident of Kwama, in the Koya chiefdom, was freed by the court on Monday 19th October 2026, for want of prosecution. His discharge brings to an end barely two years of court appearances, some of which were on bail.
Speaking at the Board’s head office at Wilberforce Street in Freetown, the beneficiary thanked the Board for its intervention, adding that the move helped vindicate him of any wrongdoing as he has always maintained. He explained how traumatized his life has been, stating that the two years proceedings have shattered not only his life but that of his wife and five children.
In a similar development, the Board also secured the discharge of three other accused persons arraigned in separate files on sexual penetration and housebreaking and larceny.
The three; Ishmael Kamara, Omar Kamara and Chrispine Samuel Lebbie were also discharged on Monday by Justice Manuela A.J Harding for want of prosecution. All the beneficiaries were represented by Counsel Egerton Saunders.
In her usual post discharge briefing to beneficiaries, the Executive Director of the Board, Mrs Fatmata Claire Carlton-Hanciles, urged them to see their discharge as a lesson, adding that the Board’s hands are full and will be constrained to provide representation for repeated offenders. She admonished them to eschew anything that will be of police interest, noting that the sexual offences law has no respect for age, title, disability, etc. She advised them to go back to their communities and be good contributors.
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