Kyambogo University Deputy Vice Chancellor Charged with Defilement of a Blind Student Remanded Again
Some of the people with disability holding placards outside court at Nakawa Chief Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
| NAKAWA | KYAGGWE TV | Court has further remanded Dr. Eron Lawrence, the former deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Finance and Administration at Kyambogo University pending investigations into his case.
Dr. Eron (56), who also doubled as the head of the Special Needs and Rehabilitation Faculty, is facing charges of aggravated defilement. It is alleged that he defiled a 16-year-old blind student whom he also infected with HIV/Aids.
Dr. Eron on Wednesday appeared before the Nakawa Chief Magistrate, Christine Nantege for mention of his case and she further remanded him to Luzira Prison.
Prosecution led by Eunice Mbayine alleges that on October 12, 2023, between Kyambogo University and Namugongo-Nsawo Cell in Kira Municipality, Dr. Eron sexually abused a visually impaired Senior Four student.
The Chief Magistrate has remanded Dr. Eron to Luzira prison until July 31, 2024. The courtroom has been filled to capacity with a number of people with disabilities headed by their leaders whose turn up in numbers has been a sign of solidarity to the victim.
Outside the courtroom, after the case’s adjournment, the leaders from different disability organisations addressed the media as they asked for timely justice, given the status of the victim as a visually impaired person. Other members held placards bearing writings that demanded for security of the disabled children from the perpetrators of sexual and other forms of violence.
“Protect the girls with disabilities from sexual harassment, prosecute the perpetrators. Let girls with disabilities study, they also have a future,” read some of the words on the placards.
Francis Kinubi, the chairperson of the National Association of the Blind showed dismay to the fact that the person of Dr. Eron’s stature in a high position of authority lowered himself to that extent when he turned against the student who was under his care.
Agnes Aserait, the chief executive officer of Reach a Voice Uganda expressing herself at court.
Kinubi said that many of the visually impaired children and other disabled girls are defiled and the perpetrators are not arrested, yet even those arrested are set free on grounds of lack of substantial evidence.
“The fact that this case is thoroughly investigated with all the evidence laid before the court, we want to have this one case followed to its logical conclusion,” he said.
Agnes Aserait, the chief executive officer of Reach a Voice Uganda, an association advocating for the rights of children and adolescents with disabilities said that as people with disability, they had to turn-up in numbers to follow up, one of the many cases of sexual abuses happening to disabled children in Uganda.
“We need justice for our disabled girls in Uganda, we are not ready to be compromised. We want this case to be an example to others out there who are defiled and just keep quiet. We need to protect the victims because of their vulnerability,” Aserait said.
The victim’s father, Morgan Amin Muhamood said that though he started following the case alone, he is now happy and firm that with the other disabled community at his back, his daughter will be able to get justice.
Amin told Kyaggwe TV that after Dr. Eron’s arrest, his family members tried to reach out to one of his relatives seeking for dialogue so that they could have the matter resolved out of court.
“However we could not lend them our ears as we asked them to let the law follow its course. I want justice for my daughter, not riches,” he said.
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