MANU ALIAS KABONYA vs. THE REPUBLIC [1977]DLCA1356

Date	1977-07-28
Suit No.
Citation No.	[1977]DLCA1356

ARCHER JA

KINGSLEY-NYINAH JA

HAYFRON-BENJAMIN J.A.

AHENKORAH FOR THE APPELLANT.

MRS. J. BAMFORD-ADDO PRINCIPAL STATE ATTORNEY FOR THE REPUBLIC.

[1977]DLCA1356
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													<main id="main" class="content" style="min-height: 60rem" >MANU ALIAS KABONYA <o:p></o:p>vs. <o:p></o:p>THE REPUBLIC <o:p></o:p>[COURT OF APPEAL, ACCRA]<o:p></o:p>[1977]1 GLR 196<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:
28 JULY 1976<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">

AHENKORAH FOR THE APPELLANT.<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">

ARCHER, KINGSLEY-NYINAH AND<o:p></o:p>

</div><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>JUDGMENT OF ARCHER J.A.<o:p></o:p>Archer
J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. The appellant was married to one Yaa
Donkor of Wurompo village near Wenchi. Before the marriage Yaa Donkor had five
other children including one Abenaa Frempomaa aged about six years. The
appellant had only a two-year-old male child with this woman. On 22 January
1971, Yaa Donkor travelled to her hometown Badu to attend the funeral of her
late uncle and the appellant promised to follow her with the children after
securing a financial loan. Four days later, the appellant did not follow his
wife to Badu where the funeral was being held but rather travelled to another
cottage about a mile away from his own cottage, Yaw Pokukrom. He took with him
two children, his two-year-old son whom he carried on his back and his
step-daughter Abenaa Frempomaa. After spending a greater part of the evening in
the cottage, the appellant decided to return to his own cottage. On the way
back, the appellant for reasons best known to himself and which would be
mentioned later, slashed his step-daughter, Abenaa Frempomaa, several times
with his cutlass and left the poor child dead on the foot-path. Afterwards, the
appellant went to a nearby cottage and by his shouting aroused two witnesses
the first and second prosecution witnesses, from their sleep and confessed to
them that he had killed his child, Abenaa Frempomaa on the foot-path. The
appellant was arrested and subsequently charged with the murder of this
step-daughter.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>In his submission
to the jury at the trial, learned counsel for the appellant pointed out that
the appellant did not deny that he inflicted the cutlass wounds on the child
and he also submitted that the appellant had not denied that the harm caused by
the use of the cutlass caused the death of the deceased. The only defence then
put forward on behalf of the appellant was insanity with special reference to
insane delusion. The jury rejected the plea of insanity or insane delusion and
found the appellant guilty of murder.<o:p></o:p>Before
this court, only one additional ground of appeal was argued before us, that is:<o:p></o:p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;
margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;border:none;mso-padding-alt:
31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;mso-border-shadow:yes">“So long
as there was a plea of not guilty the prosecution had the burden of proving not
just that the appellant inflicted unlawful harm on the deceased but that any
harm so inflicted was the cause in law of the death of the deceased but in this
case, the cause of death was not proved.”<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>What is
the evidence? The seventh prosecution witness, the detective constable, who
visited the locus in quo with his superior officer, testified that on arrival
they found the dead body of a girl aged about six years partly dressed with a
pair of white pants and also partly covered with cover cloth lying in a pool of
blood with some four cutlass wounds around the crown of the head and also
around the neck. The body was lying face downwards. In his police statement,
exhibit A, made within 24 hours of the murder, the appellant revealed that on
the bush path that night something came to his mind to kill Abenaa Frempomaa
without delay. He therefore put the two-year son he was carrying on the ground
and then slashed the six-year-old girl with the sharp cutlass as a result of
which she died instantly. There is no doubt that the number of the wounds
inflicted on the crown of the head and the neck of this girl might have caused
her death. This was not disputed at the trial yet in this court learned counsel
for the appellant has urged us to say that the prosecution failed to prove the
cause of death notwithstanding the evidence of the wounds and the pool of blood
in which the dead body was found lying. Perhaps what learned counsel expected
the prosecution to do at the trial was to have brought the medical officer, Dr.
Beltman of the Wenchi Mission Hospital, where the dead body was deposited and
where an autopsy was conducted by Dr. Beltman on the same day of the incident
before the body was released to the relatives for burial. The question to be
answered is whether medical evidence was necessary to establish the cause of
death of this little girl? The legal position is that as regards the proof of
the cause of death, medical evidence, though desirable, is not essential: see
R. v. Nwokocha (1949) 12 W.A.C.A. 453.<o:p></o:p>