Olufemi Olaleye, a former medical director at the Optimal Cancer Care Foundation in Lagos, has been detained in the United Kingdom, facing three charges of voyeurism.
Voyeurism is the act of deriving pleasure from secretly observing individuals who are nude or engaged in sexual activity.
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It is a criminal offence in the UK, primarily under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, and the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019, and penalties can include imprisonment for a term of up to two years for non-consensual voyeurism.
The suspect was brought before the Medway Magistrates’ Court on 5 December, which ordered his remand till 2 January 2026, having pleaded not guilty, according to the Punch newspaper.
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Mr Olaleye, who is also a British citizen, was arrested at Gatwick Airport, London, on 27 November upon arriving in the UK from Nigeria. He was immediately taken into custody by the North Kent Police Station for questioning.
Backstory
PREMIUM TIMES reports that Mr Olaleye, the medical director of Optimal Cancer Care, was arraigned in 2022 by the Lagos State government at the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court in Ikeja, Lagos.
He was accused of defilement and sexual assault by penetration of his wife’s 16-year-old niece.
After he was sentenced to life imprisonment in August 2023, his lawyer, Kemi Pihinero, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), filed an appeal in November 2023, arguing that there was no direct evidence to confirm the alleged victim’s age.
The appellant claimed that the prosecution failed to provide documentation proving she was 16 years old at the time of the offence.
In its judgement delivered on 29 November, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal discharged and acquitted him.
Jimi Bada, who read the lead judgment, which was consented to by the two other justices, held that the trial court erred in convicting Mr Olaleye based on “tainted” and ‘unreliable’ evidence of his estranged wife, Oluremi, and the alleged survivor (name withheld).
The appellate court stated that there were material contradictions in the evidence gathered by the prosecution, which the lower court should not have relied on.
Lawsuit
The alleged sexual incidents involving several women happened when Mr Olaleye worked in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Darent Valley Hospital under the Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust from January 2005 to September 2008.
Kent Police, who confirmed his arrest and detention via email to the Punch newspaper, said three charges of voyeurism were filed against the suspect.
“Kent Police was made aware of a man suspected of offences returning to the UK from Nigeria via Gatwick airport on Thursday, 27 November 2025,” the Police Press Officer, Charles Harman, wrote in the email.
“Officers attended the terminal, and a man was arrested. Francis Olaleye, 57, from Plumstead Common Road, Plumstead, London, was later charged with three counts of voyeurism. He denied all charges at Medway Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, 29 November, and has been remanded in custody until his next hearing on Friday, 5 December.”
The charges state, “Between 01/05/2004 and 31/07/2007 at Dartford in the county of Kent, recorded another person doing a private act with the intention that you would, for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification, look at an image of that other person doing the act, knowing that the other person did not consent to your recording the act with that intention.”
PREMIUM TIMES could not independently verify at what point Olufemi Olaleye or Femi Olaleye became Francis Olaleye. However, findings showed that the suspect may have changed his name a few times.
For instance, he registered as “Frank Olaleye” when he became a director at Wish for Africa, a charity organisation he established in October 2007 and dissolved in 2010. However, his name remained the same on his Instagram handle. His last update was on 27 November about his five-day tour to Dubai.
Meanwhile, activists, in a press release issued on Saturday and jointly signed by the Executive Director of the Centre Against Injustice and Domestic Violence (CAIDOV), Gbenga Soloki, and the Executive Director of Tonia Bruised But Not Broken Foundation, Anthonia Ojenagbon, commended Justice Rahmon Oshodi for his initial judgment, despite it being overturned by the Court of Appeal.
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They said the judge sent Mr Olaleye to jail based on evidence presented by the survivor and the painstaking prosecution by the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).
“Truly, with the likes of Justice Oshodi on the bench, the judiciary is the last hope of the common man, and a man of such pedigree deserves commendation,” the statement reads.
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