GH - GODFRED OCANSEY v. REPUBLIC

J U D G M E N T

APALOO JA; In this appeal, the appellant Godfred Ocansey is seeking the reversal of his conviction by the High Court Accra dated 30/4/2009. The High Court upon conviction sentenced the appellant to a term of 7 years IHL in

respect of Count 1 and for Count 2 he was to serve 3 years IHL. Both sentences were to run concurrently.

The appellant had been charged with the offences of defilement contrary to section 101 of the Criminal Offences Act 1960, Act 29 and incest contrary to section 105 of the same Act.

Briefly stated the case of the Prosecution was that the appellant is and was at all material time the father of Edna Ocansey who was aged 17 at the commencement of the trial. According to the Prosecution between the years 2000- 2003, appellant had sexual intercourse with his daughter Edna several times when she was below the age of 16 years. Appellant was able to convince Edna that as a father he had the right to have sex with her and so she should not tell anybody. Appellant then continued to make sexual demands on his daughter until June 2007 when she rebelled. Her refusal attracted severe beatings from the appellant. He also prevented her from going out of the house alone and also going to her mother’s family house.

It was the Prosecution’s case further that in March 2007, Edna accompanied her mother to a party organized by her aunt and this infuriated the appellant so much that he beat her up mercilessly for going out of the house. Edna threatened to tell her mother the truth which statement attracted further beatings. The mother went to the scene but she was also beaten mercilessly by the appellant and was taken to hospital. Edna later confided in her mother with the details of her father’s sexual conduct.

It was alleged that upon confrontation with the truth appellant confessed to it and agreed during a family attempted settlement to pacify both the wife’s family and his to avoid any calamity descending on the families. Appellant however reneged on the terms of the agreement which resulted in a family feud. On June 17th, 2007 Edna proceeded to the Tema Regional Police to lodge a complaint and after investigations the appellant was charged with the offences.

The appellant by his petition of appeal filed 6 grounds of appeal to wit;

That the judgment is against the weight of the evidence on record.

There were serious conflicts and discrepancies in the evidence of the prosecution on material issues which affected the credibility o

AI Generated Summary

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.

GODFRED OCANSEY v. REPUBLIC

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GODFRED OCANSEY v. REPUBLIC

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