Ansumana Gassama, a football coach convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy he trained, has been sentenced to seven years in prison, two years above the statutory minimum after Principal Magistrate I. Sallah M’bai ruled that the aggravating factors in the case far outweighed any mitigation.
Principal Magistrate Sallah M’bai also ordered Ansumana Gassama to pay 500,000 dalasi in compensation to the victim, with an additional year in prison to be served consecutively if he defaults on payment.
Ansumana Gassama first appeared before the court on 5 August 2026, arraigned on one count of unnatural offences under section 122(1)(a) of the Criminal Offences Act 2025, which carries a minimum sentence of five years.
When the charge was read and explained to him in Mandinka, he pleaded guilty, though he maintained that he hadn’t acted intentionally. After the prosecution’s facts were narrated to him, he acknowledged that they were correct. Satisfied that the plea was informed and voluntary, Magistrate Sallah M’bai convicted him on the spot and adjourned the matter to 18 August 2026 for sentencing.
Returning to court today, the charge was read to him once more in Mandinka, and he confirmed his guilty plea after the facts and exhibits were again put to him.
In his mitigation plea, Ansumana Gassama asked the court for mercy, described the offence as a mistake he would never repeat, and said what he had experienced at Mile 2 Prison in the few days had already been punishment enough.
The prosecution, represented by Inspector Jallow for the Inspector General of Police, acknowledged he had no prior convictions but applied under section 191 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2025 for the minor to receive compensation.
In her ruling, Magistrate Sallah M’bai said the case could not be treated as an ordinary application of the statutory minimum given how serious the circumstances were. She pointed to several aggravating factors:
The victim was only ten years old, a fact established by his birth certificate. Ansumana Gassama, as the boy’s football coach, held a position of trust that he exploited to gain access to him, inviting him to his home after a coaching session.
Also, the offence involved penetrative sexual conduct. Medical evidence showed the child suffered physical injury, including bruising and bleeding and the child’s age made him especially vulnerable, and the assault represented a serious violation of his dignity and bodily integrity.
Principal Magistrate stated that although there was no psychological assessment before the court, an experience of such could still affect a child’s long-term sense of safety and trust.
Magistrate Sallah M’bai affirmed that Ansumana Gassama wasn’t being sentenced for being a coach, but that the coaching relationship mattered because it explained how he was able to access and abuse the child, something she said adults entrusted with children’s care must never do.
Weighed against that, Magistrate Sallah M’bai credited Ansumana Gassama with mitigating factors: his youth, his lack of prior convictions, his guilty plea, and his cooperation throughout the proceedings, which spared the child and his family the burden of a contested trial.
But the magistrate Sallah M’bai concluded that none of that was enough to offset the gravity of the offence, and that the five-year statutory floor wouldn’t adequately reflect what had happened.
She sentenced Ansumana Gassama to seven years’ imprisonment, plus the compensation order, with a consecutive year if fail to pay the compensation.
