By: Isatou Sarr
The trial of Muhammed Sillah, accused of the defilement of a 17-year-old girl, continues at the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court before Her Worship I. Sallah Mbye.
The session commenced with the testimony of a second prosecution witness (PW2) and a heated exchange over the admissibility of the accused’s cautionary and voluntary statements.
The prosecutor, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Manga, called Sergeant Ba-Foday Camara of the Kanifing Police Station to the stand. Sgt. Camara, regimental number 4144, testified that he was on duty in May 2025 when a formal complaint was lodged against the accused (Muhammed Sillah).
In his evidence-in-chief, Sgt. Camara detailed the procedure used to obtain the legal documents from Sillah.
“I was at the Police Station whilst on duty, a complaint was lodged… after we heard their narration, I was instructed by my superior to obtain a Cautionary Statement,” Camara told the court. He described the environment as the station’s charge office, with the accused behind the counter while obtaining his statement and an independent witness present.
Sgt Camara confirmed that the statements were read back to the accused, who then thumbprinted them, while he (Sgt Camara) and the independent witness signed.
When ACP Manga moved to tender the Cautionary and Voluntary statements as evidence, Muhammed Sillah (accused), who continues to represent himself, objected.
When the state voluntary statement was read to Muhammad Sillah which contained that “Our first sex was forced but the second and third were voluntary in my house,”
However, in a surprising admission to the court, Muhammed Sillah did not deny that the statements contained incriminating words but argued they were not his own. He claimed he agreed to the narrative only to protect the victim’s reputation from her mother.
“These are the words of the girl,” Muhammad Sillah told the court. “I said it because I was just backing her up, so the problem will be easy on her and for her mother not to know that she has a taste of a man. That was why I said it.”
Despite the objection, Her Worship I. Sallah Mbye ruled that the documents met the legal threshold for evidence. Citing Section 3 of the Evidence Act, which focuses on the relevance of the documents to the case, Magistrate Sallah Mbye admitted the Voluntary and Cautionary statements into evidence. They were marked as Exhibit A1 and Exhibit A2.
The prosecution concluded its examination of Sgt. Camara after the ruling and Sgt Camara was discharged. The case was adjourned to Monday, 19th September 2026, for the testimony of PW3.