A High Court in Kisumu on Monday upheld the judgement by Winam Magistrates Court against an appeal by Italian national Paolo Camelini, who was arraigned for defiling a 3-year-old boy in Kisumu’s Manyatta Estate in February 2022.

The Italian national was sentenced to life imprisonment for the offence of defiling the minor but appealed on the grounds that the lower court erred in law by allowing an intermediary to testify on behalf of the victim.

He also urged that the trial court failed to recognize that the oral evidence by the intermediary wasn’t for the victim and that the repeated use of the name 'Paolo’ by the victim was insufficient evidence to identify the appellant.

However, Lady Justice Roseline Aburili agreed with the lower court that the victim, being a minor aged 3 years, could not testify, thus a need for an intermediary to testify on behalf of the victim and that the evidence adduced by the intermediary was that of the victim.

The court further ruled that the prosecution, led by Senior Principal Prosecution Counsel John Okoth, proved the evidence of both defilement and the identity of the appellant as well as the age of the victim beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Court, however, set aside the life imprisonment that had been issued by the lower court and substituted it with 30 years imprisonment, saying the lower court did not consider the fact that the appellant was a first offender.