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May 23, 2023
CIRCUIT COURT
GHANA
CORAM
JUDGMENT
The Accused person was arraigned before this Court on April 22, 2022 for the offences
of carnal knowledge of imbecile and Defilement Contrary to Sections 102 and 101(2) of
The Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 Act 29.
The accused person pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against him for which
reason the prosecution assumed the burden of proof and must prove the charges
against the accused person beyond reasonable doubt in accordance with;
Section 11(2) of the Evidence Act 1975 NRCD 323 states;
“In a criminal action the burden of producing evidence when it is on the prosecution as to any
fact which is essential to guilt requires the prosecution to produce sufficient evidence so that on
all the evidence a reasonable mind will find the existence of the facts beyond reasonable doubt.”
Further, Section 13(1) of NRCD 323 provides that the standard of proof is nothing less
than proof beyond reasonable doubt no matter the offence charged.
See the case of Ampabeng Vrs Republic [1977] 2 GLR 171 CA
The prosecution in order to discharge the burden placed upon them called three
witnesses and tendered 7 exhibits in evidence.
THE PROSECUTION CASE
The summary of prosecution case is that PW1 is the survivor and she testified that she
knows accused person as a taxi driver at the Asinadze lorry park. On 08/03/2022 at 5.00,
she was going to attend public washroom when she met accused and he asked her to
follow him to an uncompleted building at Abura Roman Park. In the building, accused
removed her dress and asked her to lie down on the bare floor. Accused removed his
pair of trousers and laid on her, put his erected penis into her vagina and had sexual
intercourse with her. After the sexual intercourse, accused gave her one Ghana cedi. She
continued that accused had sexual intercourse with her on several occasion after the
first act so she narrated her ordeal to her mother when she was asked that someone saw
her in an uncompleted building having sex with the accused.
the complainant (PW2), is the biological father of the survivor who is a special child
aged fifteen years. He stays with the survivor and the mother at Abura, Cape Coast.
According to PW2, he returned from his hometown and his wife informed him that
accused person has been having sexual intercourse with the survivor in an uncompleted
building at Abura Roman School. He enquired from the survivor and she mentioned
the name of the accused person.
PW3 is G/Cons
AI Generated Summary
This criminal ruling from the Circuit Court, presided over by H/H Dorinda Smith Arthur (Mrs.), concerns an application for submission of no case after the prosecution closed its case against a taxi driver accused of defilement under Section 101(2) and carnal knowledge of an imbecile under Section 102 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29). The survivor, a fifteen-year-old ‘special child’ living in Abura, Cape Coast, described two sexual encounters—one in an uncompleted building near Abura Roman Park and another at the back of the accused’s taxi—and said she received small sums of money afterward. Her father reported the matter; DOVVSU’s G/Const Richmond Otuey investigated, visited the Model Government School, Jukwa crime scene, tendered photographs, documented the secluded environment, recorded the accused’s admissions, and produced a medical form indicating hymenal tears and a birth certificate showing October 27, 2006 as the survivor’s date of birth. Citing NRCD 323 Sections 11(2) and 13(1), and authorities including Tsatsu Tsikata v The Republic and Republic v Yeboah, the judge held that, on all the evidence, a reasonable mind could find the essential facts beyond a reasonable doubt at this stage. The court dismissed the no case submission and called the accused to open his defence.