Arthwah Maddie, a court reporter with the privately-owned FOR DI PEOPLE newspaper, was detained at the State Pademba Road Prison for about four hours on the orders of Bankole Shyllon, a magistrate of a Freetown court for erroneously reducing the age of a young man of 18 years jailed for committing incest.
Maddie was released late in the evening upon the intervention of some lawyers for his release.
Maddie said that magistrate had invited him to his chambers over the story. “When I entered his chambers, he asked me if I was the author of that story and I replied yes. He then ordered for my detention”, the reporter said.
According to the reporter, the mistake was a typographical error by the newspaper’s typist.
The correspondent said Maddie became traumatized by the event and this could affect his reporting at the court.
