Jackpot: Lady award $1B in damages after being raped as a teenager

The victim, Hope Cheston and the security guard, Brandon Lamar Zachary (Instagram)
Inset: The victim, Hope Cheston and the security guard, Brandon Lamar Zachary (Instagram)
After being raped at age 14 by an apartment complex guard, one Hope Cheston has been awarded a whopping $1 Billion in damages, years later.

According to the reports, Cheston had been at a party with her boyfriend in October 2012 when an armed security guard approached them by some picnic tables.

While speaking with Associated Press on Wednesday, May 23, 2018, Cheston's attorney, said that the guard ordered the victim's boyfriend not to more before proceeding to rape her.

Identified in the lawsuit as Brandon Lamar Zachary, the security guard has now been convicted of statutory rape and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

AP reports that the suit was filed by the mother of the victim, Renatta Cheston-Thornton, on behalf of her daughter who was a minor at the time.

A Georgia jury passed the verdict on Tuesday, May 22, 2018, against Crime Prevention Agency, the security company that employed Zachary.

The jury argued that Zachary, who was 22 at the time of the rape, was too young to have been hired by the company because he was not licensed to carry a gun.

According to Stewart, the presiding judge already determined that the security company was liable for Zachary's actions so the jury simply determined the damages.Man, 21, in court for alleged sexual assault of minor

A 21-year-old man, Jeremiah Okpara, who allegedly assaulted his neighbour's five-year-old daughter, was on Tuesday charged before an Ikeja High Court, Lagos.

Okpara a resident of Imashai St., Agege, a Lagos suburb, is facing a charge of sexual assault.

The Prosecutor, Mr Adebayo Haroun, told the court that the accused lured his victim into his apartment and used his fingers on her private part.

"Okafor sexually assaulted the five-year-old girl by penetrating her private part with his fingers.

"He was caught by some neighbours, who arrested and took him to the police station,'' he said.

Haroun urged the court to fix a date for trial saying he had four witnesses ready to testify during the trial.

The offence contravened Section 259 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Justice Sedotan Ogunsanya remanded the accused in Kirikiri Prisons and adjourned the case to May 9 for trial.

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