JUDGMENT OF OWUSU-ADDO J.
The parties were married under the Marriage Ordinance, Cap. 127 (1951 Rev.) on 28 April 1963 in Kumasi. The petitioner then a spinster was described as a seamstress and the respondent was and still is a minister of religion. There are two children of the marriage, Clifford, aged eighteen years and Regina aged fifteen years. The petitioner was a mother of six children and the respondent had a son at the time of their marriage.
The husband and the wife and children lived happily together during the first four years in Sekondi. Subsequently, the husband and the wife lived in an atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion which resulted in quarrels, taunting and accusations of adultery against the petitioner by the respondent. There is evidence that the husband subjected the wife to acts of indignities which resulted in the wife's refusal to have sexual intercourse with him. Eventually their relationship degenerated to the extent that the wife found life impossible with the husband and left the matrimonial home in September 1972. She has since not returned to cohabit with the husband and lives with her mother in Kumasi.
Her previous petition filed on 21 June 1973 was dismissed on 24 April 1975 for want of prosecution. Her present petition is dated 4 June 1975, alleging cruelty and desertion, culminating in breakdown of their marriage beyond reconciliation. She prayed that the marriage be dissolved and that she be granted custody of the two children.
In a 47-paragraphed answer dated 23 November 1976, the husband said, inter alia, that the wife did commit adultery with one Foah in their bedroom at Sekondi. Afterwards, Mr. J. E. Conduah-Lutterodt, a legal practitioner, did promote a reconciliation between them on 17 November 1972 at Kumasi and the wife returned to the matrimonial home. He urged the court to dismiss the petition mainly on the ground that they had reconciled their differences since 1972. By his supplementary answer dated 14 January 1977 the husband denied the accusation of cruelty and alleged that he was told by one Deede that the wife was a notorious prostitute and had stolen his money to support her boyfriend. The remaining paragraphs contained abuses and insults levelled against the wife.
The wife's evidence disclosed that the main causes of the breakdown of their marriage were a series of taunts, assaults, accusations of adultery and indignities to which she was subjected by the husband. [p.1130] As a result she became
