Gambiaj.com – (BANJUL, The Gambia) – The High Court in Banjul has sentenced a man to life imprisonment after finding him guilty on all five counts connected to a brutal cutlass attack on his wife that left her permanently disabled and confined to a wheelchair.
Yugo Sowe, also known as “Gorgui,” was convicted following a trial in which Justice Ebrima Jaiteh found the evidence against him overwhelming, dismissing his defense in unsparing terms and describing his explanations as “improbable, artificial, and contrived.”
Delivering judgment on Monday, the judge heard that on the night of 16 November 2023, Sowe entered his wife’s bedroom and repeatedly struck her with a cutlass while she slept, an attack so severe it fractured both her legs, severed tendons, damaged nerves, and left her requiring multiple surgeries and nearly two months of hospitalization. She has never fully recovered.
The victim, Amie Sowe, told the court she recognized her husband as the man who attacked her. Her account was corroborated by an eyewitness, identified in court as PW4, who also placed Sowe at the scene. Justice Jaiteh noted that both testimonies remained consistent throughout cross-examination and were never meaningfully challenged.
Physical and medical evidence further sealed the prosecution’s case. Investigators recovered a cutlass and bloodstained clothing linked to the accused. Sowe’s attempt to explain the blood, claiming it came from sitting on a mattress while in police custody, was rejected outright by the judge as unconvincing and irreconcilable with the broader evidence.
Medical experts who testified described the full extent of the injuries: deep cuts, tendon and nerve damage, multiple fractures, and other serious trauma. Justice Jaiteh said the nature and pattern of those injuries pointed unmistakably to a sustained and deliberate assault.
Sowe’s defense, that he was ill and absent from the scene and that unknown persons may have been responsible, found no traction in court. Even a witness called by the defense ended up reinforcing the prosecution’s narrative, telling the court that shortly after the attack, the victim herself identified “Gorgui” as the man who had attacked her.
On the attempted murder charge, the judge found that Sowe had armed himself, waited until night, and struck a sleeping and defenseless woman, targeting vital parts of her body in a manner consistent with an intention to kill or cause fatal harm.
The court also took into account threats Sowe had earlier made against his wife during disputes over land and property, which Justice Jaiteh said helped explain the context and motive behind the assault.
In sentencing, the judge acknowledged that Sowe had no prior criminal record and was a family man, but said those considerations were far outweighed by the gravity of the offense. He described the case as one of extreme domestic violence, committed in the victim’s own bedroom, at night, with a deadly weapon, and in the presence of the couple’s children.
Sowe received seven years for attempted murder, seven years for grievous harm, three years for wounding, and two years for domestic violence. For acts intended to cause grievous harm, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. All sentences will run concurrently, making the life term the effective and defining punishment.
Before rising, Justice Jaiteh used the occasion to speak directly to the broader problem of domestic abuse, cautioning that patterns of threats, intimidation, and coercive control must never be normalized or treated as ordinary domestic friction.
“These are not signs of love,” he said. “They are signs of danger.”
Sowe was informed of his right to appeal.
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