[1974]DLHC11121 • March 22, 1974 • High Court
COMFORT AND ANOTHER vs. THE REPUBLIC
The appellants were charged with assaulting two complainants during a spiritualist meeting conducted by the first appellant, a prophetess. The first appellant allegedly hit one complainant multiple times with a stick to exorcise evil spirits, while the second appellant also struck another complainant. The appellants denied the charges, claiming lack of knowledge or that they were victims of assault. Defence witnesses supported the appellants' version that the complainants were the aggressors.
read moreOn 8 March 1974 I allowed this appeal and set aside the conviction and sentence of the appellants and substituted an acquittal and discharge and ordered that the fines imposed if paid should be refunded forthwith to the appellants. I reserved my reasons which I now proceed to give. The first and second appellants were jointly charged in count 1 for assaulting one Peter Adjei and the first appellant alone was charged in count 2 for assaulting one Abena Frema. The prosecution’s case, in a nutshell, disclosed that the complainants, Peter Adjei and Abena Frema (the first and second prosecution witnesses respectively) had attended a spiritualist meeting which the first appellant had conducted at her house to exorcise evil spirits and that in the course of the meeting the first appellant, who is acknowledged by the group as a prophetess and was therefore the chief actress in the drama, had hit the head of Abena Frema several times with a stick in her effort to exorcise Abena Frema of her e.....