A Kenyan man has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a US court for sexually assaulting a 74-year-old patient at a medical facility where he was working.
Anthony Mamboleo Nyakeo, 53, was convicted Wednesday of two counts of aggravated sexual assault of an elderly or disabled person.
A Texas court handed him a life sentence on each account.
2018 CRIME
Nyakeo’s victim was living at the Woodridge Health and Rehabilitation Center in Grapevine, Texas when the crime occured in January 2018. She died late last year aged 75.
Evidence filed in court showed that the sexual assault was discovered after other nurses working at the facility found blood in the underwear of the victim.
“An exam found evidence of vaginal tearing consistent with sexual abuse and staff collected DNA that was eventually used to tie Mr Nyakeo to the assault,” Fox News reported.
After the discovery of the blood, all male staff at the facility at the time the suspected sexual assault took place were asked to undergo a DNA test. The Tarrant County District Attorney’s office told the court that Mr Nyakeo’s DNA sample “matched the sample recovered from the woman during her sexual assault exam.”
The court was also told that the Kenyan nurse, who immigrated to the US, raped the elderly woman despite knowing that she could not resist or consent to his sexual advances because of her medical condition.
“She could not speak, feed herself or use the bathroom on her own as she wore a diaper and relied on staff. We are an ageing community and we each deserve the peace of mind of knowing we will be treated with dignity when such time comes,” Jordan Rolfe, the lead prosecutor told the court.
“The defendant violated that right, and the jury demonstrated with their sentence this kind of abuse against the vulnerable will not be tolerated here,” he added.
In his defence, Mr Nyakeo denied sexually assaulting the elderly woman. He claimed that someone took his DNA from a used condom and planted it on the victim’s body. His colleague however, who testified against him, said he had told his friends to lie to the court during the trial.
In addition prosecutors also said in court documents that Nyakeo had also sexually harassed his colleagues and that he attempted to leave Texas during the investigation.