ADJEI AND ANOTHER vs. THE REPUBLIC [1967]DLCA1443

Date	1967-12-11
Suit No.
Citation No.	[1967]DLCA1443

CRABBE JA

APALOO JA

LASSEY J A.

KOFI SACKEY FOR THE FIRST APPELLANT.

KOI LARBI FOR THE SECOND APPELLANT.

VICTOR KISSEIH SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY FOR THE REPUBLIC.

[1967]DLCA1443
																																						<div class="restriction-wrapper">
														<div class="container-lg">
															<div class="row">
																<div class="col-md-12 restricted-content">
																	<div class="restricted-content-img-wrapper">
																		<div class="lock-icon bounce-7">
																			<img class=""
																				src="https://www.dennislawgh.com/dl-assets/dl-images/lock-content.png"
																				alt="Subscription based content">
																		</div>
																	</div>
																	 
																		<a href="https://www.dennislawgh.com/login"
																		class="btn btn-primary btn-lg"
																		style="font-family: 'open sans'; text-transform: capitalize; border-radius: 8px"> 
																		Login to Read Full Case </a>
																	 
																	
																</div>
															</div>
														</div>
													</div>
													<main id="main" class="content" style="min-height: 60rem" >ADJEI AND ANOTHER<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;vs. <o:p></o:p>THE REPUBLIC <o:p></o:p>[COURT OF APPEAL]<o:p></o:p>[1967] GLR 707<o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">

DATE:
11 DECEMBER
1967.<o:p></o:p>

</div>COUNSEL:&nbsp;&nbsp; <o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">

KOFI SACKEY FOR THE FIRST APPELLANT.<o:p></o:p>

KOI LARBI FOR THE SECOND APPELLANT.<o:p></o:p>

VICTOR KISSEIH, SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY, FOR THE
REPUBLIC.<o:p></o:p>

</div>CORAM:
<o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">

CRABBE, APALOO AND LASSEY JJ A.<o:p></o:p>

</div><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>JUDGMENT OF APALOO J.A.<o:p></o:p>Apaloo
J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. On 14 June 1966, both appellants were
convicted of the offences of abetment of abortion and abortion respectively by
Baidoo J. at the High Court, Kumasi, and each was sentenced to ten years’
imprisonment with hard labour.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>The
complainant Akosua Nyarko is a trader and a housewife of Kumasi. Until the
events which gave rise to this prosecution, the complainant lived with her
eighteen-year-old niece Cecilia Kodom in the same house. The latter was in
August 1965, a pupil attending a primary school at Kumasi. Akosua Nyarko’s
hometown is Nkoranza and the evidence shows that on or about August 1965, she
paid a visit to her home at Nkoranza. She left her niece Cecilia at home. When
she returned, she met Cecilia lying in bed. There was plenty of blood in her
pants as well as on the bed on which she lay. When Cecilia was asked to get up,
she could not. When the complainant helped her up, she noticed that Cecilia was
bleeding from her female parts and appeared to be very weak.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>After
consulting her husband Mr. Adomako, the complainant ran Cecilia to St. Mary’s
Hospital — a private hospital at Mbrom Street. There, Dr. Appiah diagnosed
Cecilia’s illness as incomplete abortion. The doctor performed an emergency
operation on Cecilia and evacuated from her womb the remaining products of
pregnancy and blood clots. Dr. Appiah was of opinion that Cecilia’s case was
not natural miscarriage but that there was an interference with the pregnancy.
This, the doctor said, was proved by the fact that there was a tear of the
uterus and such tear in the doctor’s opinion, could have been caused by a sharp
instrument.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>When
Cecilia recovered from the operation, she admitted to her parents that abortion
was caused on her with an instrument by a person who lived at Bantama but whose
name she did not then know. She took the complainant and her step-father Mr.
Adomako to a house at Bantama and there pointed to a room in which the person
who used the instrument on her lived. An inmate of that house gave the name of
the second appellant as the occupant of that room and described his place of
work as the blood laboratory, Central Hospital. Upon receipt of this
information, Cecilia who was still on admission at St. Mary’s Hospital, was
returned there while her step-father in company of Adjei, her brother,
proceeded to the Central Hospital with a view to locating the second appellant.
They located him without difficulty.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>According
to the evidence which the learned trial judge accepted, Mr. Adomako upon seeing
the second appellant inquired from him whether he was the person who used an
instrument on a school girl called Cecilia to procure her abortion. The second
appellant replied that he had indeed used instrument to cause abortion on a
school girl but could not know whether that girl was the Cecilia to whom Mr.
Adomako referred. The second appellant was then invited to go with Mr. Adomako
and Adjei to identify Cecilia. The second appellant readily agreed and all the
three were run to St. Mary’s Hospital in a taxicab. As soon as the second
appellant saw Cecilia, he said “Yes this is the girl.” Cecilia for her part,
identified the second appellant as the person who used the instrument on her to
cause the abortion. A few days after this the police contacted the second
appellant. He again admitted in a cautioned statement to the police that he had
used the instrument in procuring abortion on a girl and that he did so to
oblige a soldier-friend called Prince. The voluntariness of this statement was
disputed by the second appellant in court but this issue was decided against
him.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>