REX v. EBENEZER TAWIAH. ENOCH ALLOTEY

The following jbint judgment was delivered :­

STROTHER-STEWART. AG. C.J .. GOLD COAST, DOORLY AND MCARTHY. JJ.

This is an appeal against the con victim) of 31 persons on charges of stealing under section 271 (2) of the Criminal Code at the Assizes held at Winneba on the 30th day 01 August. 1939. They were charged under three counts. and the charges all arose out of incidents which occurred on the 9th day of June. 1939. when the appellants were returning from Cape Coast to Accra after taking part in the King's Birthday celebration. They were members of the band of the Territorial Force. and were travelling in two lorries. The drivers of the two lorries were included in the number of persons convicted. The charges took their basis out of looting which had taken place at two villages through which they had passed.

.. C'.

2-U';'

Appeal Court, 23rd Nov., 1939.

Appeals from convictions in Supreme Court.

Rex

v.

Tawiah .1: ors.

Strother­Stewart, Ag. C.J., Doody and M'Carthy, JJ.

Rex v. Tawiah & ors.

The names of all 31 persons appeared in the information in respect of counts 1 and 3, but through anjnadvertence in copying out the information, only 16 of the names of the 31 persons appeared in count 2. This was not noticed at the time the appellants were arraigned, and all appellants were called upon to plead in respect of all three counts, and did so, and all were convicted. The conviction of the 15 appellants whose names were not mentioned in count 2 must accordingly be quashed, as far as their conviction in respect of that count is concerned.

The 31 persons were not identified individually by the storekeepers, and villagers, of the places in which the looting took place though all the witneses for the Crown described them as volunteers. It was impossible for them actuaUy to identify the person they described as volunteers, as there were so many of them, and they were strangers, but the occupants of the two lorries, whose numbers were taken by one of the witnesses for the prosecution, were known to have travelled in the two lorries from Accra, as was adduced in evidence for the prosecution, and the same persons were found in the lorries, when they were apprehended in the lorries by the police at the Police Depot before entering Accra, and after the looting had taken place. The evidence for the prosecution was that aU had taken an active part in the looting. In addition to this, goods which were alleged to have been taken were found in the possession