REPUBLIC VRS OFORI (D3/04/2023) [2024] GHACC 223 (15 March 2024)

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT HELD AT AMASAMAN – ACCRA ON FRIDAY THE 15TH DAY OF MARCH, 2024 BEFORE HER HONOUR ENID MARFUL-SAU, CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE CASE NO. D3/04/2023 THE REPUBLIC VRS. LUCINDA OFORI ACCUSED PERSON PRESENT PROSECUTION: C/INSP. SALIFU NASHIRU WITH SGT. ASAMAOH PRESENT COUNSEL: KUUKU WELSING- JONES ESQ. FOR ACCUSED PERSON PRESENT JUDGMENT The Accused Person is charged with one count of Causing Unlawful Harm to Dede Priscilla, contrary to Section 69 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29). The facts as presented by prosecution are that the Accused is the stepmother of Priscilla Dede aged 7 years. The complainant, Emmanuel Okoe is a neighbour of the Accused person. Prosecution says that complainant had received several complaints of the physical abuse of Accused towards the victim. Prosecution says that on 4th July, 2022 at about 8:00am, the complainant had information that the Accused was assaulting the victim, so he proceeded to the house of the Accused and found victim with several marks of assault and a swollen face. Prosecution says that complainant took the victim to the Amasaman DOVVSU Unit and a medical form was issued to her. On 6th July, 2022, the Accused was arrested and charged with the offence. Based upon these facts, she was arraigned before this court on 30th August, 2022. Page 1 of 8 Prosecution called two witnesses in support of its case. PW1 was the investigator D/Cpl. Gideon Offei and PW2 was the victim, Priscilla Dede. PW1 testified that he is stationed at the Amasaman DOVVSU. He testified that on 4/07/2022, one Emmanuel Oko Ayittey on Manhean brought to the station PW2 who complained of pains in her vagina and had marks of assault on her face and head with a swollen forehead, waist and back. He testified that the case was referred to him for investigation. He stated that he issued a medical form to complainant to take PW2 to the hospital and prepared an extract of occurrence to the Social Welfare Amasaman for necessary action. He testified that the complainant returned the medical form signed by a doctor the same day and reported that the victim was on admission at the Amasaman Hospital. He testified that he took a statement from complainant and the Accused was arrested at the Amasaman Hospital when she went to visit PW2. He stated that when PW2 was discharged, she was sent to Social Welfare for safe keeping, so he followed up and took a statement from her and one Sulley Sackey. He testified that his investigations revealed that PW2 is the stepdaughter of Accused and the Accused has been beating and maltreating her. He testified that on the instructions of the commander the Accused was charged with the offence. He tendered the following Exhibits: - Exhibit A & A1: Charge Sheet and Brief Facts - Exhibit B: Statement of Emmanuel Okoe Aryetey - Exhibit C: Statement of Priscilla Dede - Exhibit D: Statement of Joseph Kofi Mills - Exhibit E: Statement of Sulley Sackey - Exhibit F: Investigative Cautioned Statement - Exhibit G: Investigative Cautioned Statement - Exhibit G1: Charge Cautioned Statement - Exhibit H: Medical Form - Exhibit J Series: Photographs Page 2 of 8 PW2 was the victim. She gave an unsworn statement on 26th January, 2024. She testified by means of a witness statement filed on 19th June, 2023. She testified that she is seven years old and comes from Odumase-Kponmunor. She testified that the Accused person is her mother and she lives with her. She stated that the Accused person abuses her anytime she did wrong. According to her, on 4th July, 2022, the Accused person used a stick to hit her head and pushed her on the floor and used a knife to cut her after accusing her of stealing meat. She testified that when the Accused beat her, a woman called Maa Abena was present. The Accused was called upon to open her defence to the charge. She elected to give an unsworn statement from the dock. On 8th February, 2024 she stated that she did not harm the victim with a knife. According to her, on 4th July, 2022, she gave the victim food and instructed her to sit and that she was going for some rounds. She stated that she returned in 20 minutes and found PW2 still sitting with the food so she asked her to get up, but she did not. She added that she lifted PW2 up and noticed that she had defecated on herself, so she picked her out of the room and took a cane. According to her, she told PW2 that she always defecates on herself and that invites insults to her (Accused) from the neighbours, so she canned PW2. She stated that the neighbour asked what the problem was and after she narrated the issue to the neighbour, she started insulting her. She stated that after she washed the victim, she asked her to go to the room and the neighbour continued to insult her. She indicated that she called PW2 to come and sing a particular song for her which she usually sang and not long after a military man came there. Not long after, another man came to ask of the victim and took her away. She stated that she later traced him and asked for the victim, and he informed her that he had taken her to an orphanage, so she went to the victim’s father’s place and told him what happened. As already indicated, the Charge against the Accused is Causing Harm contrary to section 69 of Act 29. Section 69 of Act 29 states as follows: Page 3 of 8 “A person who intentionally and unlawfully causes harm to any other person commits a second-degree felony” Section 76 of Act 29 defines Unlawful Harm as follows: “Harm is unlawful which is intentionally or negligently caused without any of the justifications mentioned in Chapter One of this Part.” The Justifications under Chapter One as referred to in section 76 are found in sections 30 and 31 of Act 29 which provide as follows: “Section 30—Justification for Force or Harm. (1) For the purposes of this Code, force or harm is justifiable which is used or caused in pursuance of such matter of justification, and within such limits, as are hereafter in this Chapter mentioned. (2) Throughout the remainder of this Chapter, expressions applying to the use of force apply also to the causing of harm, although force only may be expressly mentioned. Section 31—Grounds on which Force or Harm May be Justified. Force may be justified in the cases and manner, subject to the conditions, hereinafter in this Chapter mentioned, on the ground of any of the following matters, namely— (a) express authority given by an enactment; or (b) authority to execute the lawful sentence or order of a Court; or (c) the authority of an officer to keep the peace or of a Court to preserve order; or (d) authority to arrest and detain for felony; or (e) authority to arrest, detain, or search a person otherwise than for felony; or (f) necessity for prevention of or defence against crime; or (g) necessity for defence of property or possession or for overcoming the obstruction to the exercise of lawful rights; or (h) necessity for preserving order on board a vessel; or Page 4 of 8 (i) authority to correct a child, servant, or other similar person, for misconduct; or (j) the consent of the person against whom the force is used.” Therefore, the elements of Causing Harm are that: 1. That the accused person caused harm 2. That the harm was caused to a person 3. The harm was unlawful As already indicated, in view of the age of PW2, she gave unsworn evidence. It was held in the case of REPUBLIC v. YEBOAH [1968] GLR 248 as follows: “That the evidence of the victim on oath in law needed no corroboration but it was a prudent rule of practice to look for corroboration from some extraneous evidence which confirmed her evidence in some material particular implicating the accused. Apart from the fact that the evidence of a victim in a sexual offence must be corroborated there was the added factor that the victim was a young person of only nine years and the evidence of a young person must as a rule of prudence be well corroborated before being acted upon by the court. There was ample circumstantial evidence corroborating the testimony of the victim that the accused ravished her. In all the circumstances of the case, even if there was no corroboration at all of the evidence of the victim, which implicated the accused in some material particular, the court was sufficiently warned of the danger of acting on the uncorroborated evidence of a victim in a sexual offence, who was a young person and was satisfied that the victim was a witness of truth.” PW2 testified that it was the Accused person who caused harm to her. Though not a sexual offence, it is trite law that the evidence of a young person must be well corroborated before being acted upon by the court. There is before this court Exhibit H, which is the Medical Report of PW2. The report which is endorsed by one Dr. Helen Gyau Boakye provides in part as follows: Page 5 of 8 “…victim sustaining hematoma of the forehead (left side) and lower back. Victim also sustained multiple abrasions on the face, trunk and upper limbs with a left little finger laceration from a bite. Upon further examination, multiple healed wounds were seen distributed on the face, anterior trunk and limbs. Patient was also noticed to be small for age and pale (very)…an impression of 1.Haematoma of the forehead (left sided) and lower back with underlying non displaced skull fracture (frontal) secondary to physical abuse, 2.multiple lacerations of face, limbs and trunk secondary to physical abuse 3. Severe traemia secondary to poor nutrition” There is also before the court Exhibit J Series which are photographs of PW2 showing a swollen forehead with multiple scars and bruises on her face. Exhibit J2 also shows PW2 with a swollen lower back extending towards her buttocks. When PW1 appeared before the court on 26th January, 2024 to testify in camera, the court observed as follows: “…victim appears timid and has used her head to answer most of the questions asked her. I again observe that though proceedings are being held in camera, the victim appears quite uncomfortable and shy” The court asked PW2 the following question: “Q: How did you get the scar above your right eyebrow A: My mother beat me” In the case of DOCHIE v. THE STATE [1965] GLR 208 it was held as follows: “Evidence given from the dock was entitled to consideration by the court, even though the weight to be attached to it was necessarily small, and failure to go into the witness-box must not be interpreted as a corroboration of the case for the prosecution.” Thus, though of little probative value, the unsworn statement of Accused is worth considering. Accused in her unsworn statement before the court admits that she used Page 6 of 8 a cane to beat PW2 but stated that she did not harm her with a knife. During cross examination of PW1 by Accused, the case she put across was that PW2 bumped her head into a wall to sustain the injury on her forehead. I am thus satisfied from the entirety of the evidence before me that harm has been caused by the Accused person to PW2. Now, was the said harm caused lawful? The justification of Accused for beating PW2 with a cane was that she had defecated on herself. I consider that use force or harm which was meted out to PW2 by Accused person was not reasonably necessary in the circumstances. From the severity of the various injuries sustained by PW2 at the hands of Accused, it is evident that the Accused used extreme pressure with the said cane on the person of PW2 to cause the injuries described in Exhibit H above and visualized in Exhibit J series. This to my mind cannot constitute reasonable harm in the circumstances. On a consideration of the entirety of the evidence, I find, and I so hold that the injury the Accused Person inflicted on PW2 was unlawful. On the facts of this case, the story of the accused that she only used a cane on victim and further that the victim bumped her forehead on a wall thereby sustaining the injury on her forehead is so fallacious that no reasonably fair-minded person would place any credence on such an explanation. I consider that the defence of Accused is not reasonably probable. I find that the harm caused PW2 was without any of the justifications stipulated under Chapter One of Act 29 thereby making the harm inflicted on PW2 unlawful. I find the Accused Person Guilty as charged and she is hereby convicted. (SGD.) H/H ENID MARFUL-SAU CIRCUIT JUDGE AMASAMAN Page 7 of 8 Page 8 of 8