By Court Reporter
A High Court judge has sentenced a man to life in prison for attacking his wife with a cutlass during a nighttime assault that left her permanently unable to walk, in a case that exposed the deadly consequences of a prolonged dispute over family land and property.
Justice Jaiteh convicted Yugo Sowe, also known as Gorgi Sowe, on five criminal counts in connection with the attack on his wife, Amie Sowe, who nearly died from her injuries and now uses a wheelchair.
The couple had been married for 23 years and had seven children together, but the relationship had deteriorated over disputes involving land and property. According to testimony presented at trial, Mr. Sowe had sold land and a cow belonging to his wife without her consent, threatened to sell the house she shared with their children, and repeatedly told her he would kill her if she refused to grant his second wife a share of the family’s property.
The attack occurred in the early hours of Nov. 16, 2023. Ms. Sowe had gone to sleep around 8 p.m. when, at about 2 a.m., her husband—who had been staying at his second wife’s home—entered her bedroom carrying a cutlass. He was dressed in a sea-green caftan with a scarf around his neck.
He struck her repeatedly while she lay in bed, hacking at her legs, cutting her arms, and injuring her fingers. When he swung the blade toward her neck, she raised her hand in defense, and the cutlass struck her hand instead. She screamed his name and asked why he was trying to kill her before he fled the room.
The couple’s 13-year-old son, Abdoulie, woke during the attack and witnessed his father strike his mother. Prosecutors said Mr. Sowe stood in the doorway, using the weapon to prevent the children from intervening. After he left, the children used their mother’s phone to call neighbors, who alerted the police.
Officers arriving at the scene found Ms. Sowe lying on a blood-soaked mattress, severely injured and barely clothed. She immediately identified her husband as her attacker, a claim she repeated when police later brought him before her.
A search of the second wife’s home that morning uncovered the cutlass hidden beneath a bed, along with bloodstained clothing. The second wife told investigators the items belonged to her husband and that he had left the house during the night, telling her he was going to the bathroom, and had not returned for more than an hour.
Doctors at Ndemban Clinic determined that Ms. Sowe had suffered fractures to both lower leg bones, deep lacerations to her arms, damaged tendons in her hands, a torn Achilles tendon, and nerve damage in her arm. Medical reports classified the injuries as life-threatening. She underwent two surgeries and spent two months hospitalized; she has not regained the ability to walk.
Mr. Sowe denied the allegations at trial, testifying that he had been ill that night and never left his second wife’s home until being informed that his wife had been attacked by armed robbers. He said bloodstains found on his clothing came from sitting on a mattress inside a police vehicle following his arrest.
A defense witness, identified as Wandifa, testified that he was the one who notified Mr. Sowe of the attack. But the same witness told the court that when he reached Ms. Sowe’s home and asked what had happened, she told him directly that her husband had entered the house and attacked her with a cutlass.
In her ruling, Justice Jaiteh dismissed the defense’s account entirely. She found no credible doubt regarding the identity of the attacker, noting that Ms. Sowe had lived with her husband for 23 years and that their son recognized him as his father. Both mother and son identified Mr. Sowe as the assailant during and immediately after the assault, the judge said.
A police sergeant who responded to the scene testified that Ms. Sowe pointed to Mr. Sowe the moment he was brought before her. Even the defense’s own witness confirmed that she had named her husband as the attacker shortly after the incident.
The judge also rejected the claim that illness made the attack impossible, citing testimony from the couple’s son that his father, despite weakness on one side of his body, held the cutlass in his right hand and struck his mother repeatedly.
“Being unwell is not the same as being unable to commit the crime,” Justice Jaiteh said.
Regarding the alibi, the judge noted that Mr. Sowe’s second wife could not account for his whereabouts for a significant portion of the night, telling police he had been gone for more than an hour while she slept. That gap, the judge said, undermined the defense’s timeline.
Addressing the suggestion that armed robbers were responsible, Justice Jaiteh said no evidence supported the existence of an unknown assailant. “A reasonable doubt must come from evidence, not from guesswork,” she said.
Mr. Sowe was found guilty on all five counts: attempted murder, grievous harm, acts intended to cause grievous harm, wounding, and domestic violence.
In mitigation, defense counsel argued that Mr. Sowe was a first-time offender, a family man, and the family’s breadwinner, and asked the court for leniency. Prosecutors confirmed he had no prior convictions.
Justice Jaiteh acknowledged the mitigating factors but said they had to be weighed against the gravity of the offense. She cited eight aggravating circumstances: that the victim was his wife rather than a stranger; that the attack was premeditated rather than impulsive; that he assaulted a sleeping woman in her own home; that he came armed with a weapon; that the assault was prolonged; that the injuries were permanently disabling; that the couple’s children witnessed the attack; and that he showed no remorse.
Justice Jaiteh sentenced Mr. Sowe to seven years for attempted murder, seven years for grievous harm, life imprisonment for acts intended to cause grievous harm, three years for wounding, and two years for domestic violence. The sentences will run concurrently, meaning Mr. Sowe will serve life in prison.
In closing remarks, Justice Jaiteh said the warning signs present in the case—repeated threats, efforts to control property, isolation of the victim, and prior physical abuse—were indicators of danger, not affection. She urged families, neighbors, and community leaders to treat such threats with seriousness rather than dismissing them as empty expressions of anger, adding that the courts would continue to safeguard every woman’s right to live free from violence.
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