GODFRED OCANSEY v. REPUBLIC

This is an appeal by Godfred Ocansey against his conviction by the High Court Accra for the offences of defilement and incest. The appellant was convicted for having sexual intercourse with his biological daughter, Edna Ocansey, multiple times between 2000-2003 when she was below the age of 16 years. The appellant was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for defilement and 3 years for incest, to run concurrently. The appellant raised six grounds of appeal, including that the judgment was against the weight of evidence, that there were serious conflicts in the prosecution's evidence, that the trial judge made wrong findings of fact, that the trial judge failed to properly appraise the defence, that evidence of an attempted settlement was wrongfully admitted, and that the trial judge failed to follow the Supreme Court decision in Commissioner of Police vs. Sem. The Court of Appeal found that although there were some contradictions in the evidence of the prosecution witnesses (PW1 Edna and PW3 her mother), they corroborated each other in substance on material facts. The Court found the detailed account given by Edna about the sexual acts to be convincing and credible. The Court held that medical evidence cannot be the final arbiter in determining the ultimate issue before the Court. The Court also found that the trial judge did not rely on the attempted settlement document to convict the appellant, and distinguished the case from Commissioner of Police vs. Sem on the basis that credible reasons were given for the delay in reporting. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and affirmed the conviction and sentence of the lower Court, finding that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.