EDMUND ADDO vs. THE REPUBLIC [2023]DLSC16112

Date	2023-05-31
Suit No.	CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. J3/04/2022
Citation No.	[2023]DLSC16112

BAFFOE-BONNIE JSC (PRESIDING)

OWUSU (MS.) JSC

AMADU JSC

ACKAH-YENSU (MS.) JSC

ASIEDU JSC

DR. JUSTICE SREM-SAI ESQ. FOR THE APPELLANT WITH CLETUS ALENGAH ESQ. ABDUL AZIZ GOMDA ESQ. & RACHEL DINSEY ESQ.

STELLA OHENE APPIAH (PRINCIPAL STATE ATTORNEY) FOR THE RESPONDENT WITH SEFAKOR BATSE (PRINCIPAL STATE ATTORNEY) LED BY DIANA ASONABA DAPAAH (DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL)

[2023]DLSC16112
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													<main id="main" class="content" style="min-height: 60rem" >EDMUND ADDO<o:p></o:p>(ACCUSED/APPELLANT/APPELLANT)<o:p></o:p>vs.<o:p></o:p><a name="_heading=h.gjdgxs"></a>THE
REPUBLIC <o:p></o:p>(RESPONDENT/RESPONDENT)<o:p></o:p>[SUPREME
COURT, ACCRA]<o:p></o:p><div style="border-top: none; border-right: none; border-left: none; border-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 1.5pt; border-bottom-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm 0cm 1pt;">

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.
J3/04/2022&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;DATE:
31ST MAY 2023&nbsp; <o:p></o:p>

</div>COUNSEL <o:p></o:p>DR.
JUSTICE SREM-SAI ESQ. FOR THE APPELLANT WITH CLETUS ALENGAH ESQ. ABDUL AZIZ
GOMDA ESQ. &amp; RACHEL DINSEY ESQ.<o:p></o:p><div style="border-top: none; border-right: none; border-left: none; border-image: initial; border-bottom-width: 1.5pt; border-bottom-color: windowtext; padding: 0cm 0cm 1pt;">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;text-align:justify;line-height:
normal;tab-stops:82.3pt;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0cm;mso-padding-alt:0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm">STELLA OHENE APPIAH (PRINCIPAL STATE
ATTORNEY) FOR THE RESPONDENT WITH SEFAKOR BATSE (PRINCIPAL STATE ATTORNEY) LED
BY DIANA ASONABA DAPAAH (DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL)<o:p></o:p>

</div>CORAM<o:p></o:p>BAFFOE-BONNIE JSC (PRESIDING), OWUSU (MS.) JSC,
AMADU JSC, ACKAH-YENSU (MS.) JSC, ASIEDU JSC&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp; <o:p></o:p><div style="border-top-width: 1.5pt; border-top-color: black; border-left: none; border-bottom-width: 1.5pt; border-bottom-color: black; border-right: none; padding: 1pt 0cm;">

<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:0cm;text-align:center;
line-height:normal;border:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid black 1.5pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid black 1.5pt;padding:0cm;mso-padding-alt:1.0pt 0cm 1.0pt 0cm">JUDGMENT<o:p></o:p>

</div>ASIEDU JSC:-<o:p></o:p>INTRODUCTION:<o:p></o:p>My
Lords, we are confronted with one main issue in this appeal and, that is,
whether an accused person standing trial for a criminal offence ought
automatically to be discharged and the charge struck out once the offence
creating section of the Act under which he was charged is repealed by an Act of
Parliament.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;FACTS:<o:p></o:p>The
facts of the case are that in the year 2015 or thereabout, the appellant, who
shall henceforth be referred to as the accused person, met the victim, then a
14-year-old student in secondary school, at a party. Sometime after, the
accused invited the victim to meet him.&nbsp;
The accused took the young girl to watch a movie at the West Hills Mall,
Accra on Valentine’s Day, 14th February 2015. The accused proposed
love to the victim who also accepted. In the early part of March 2015, the
accused person took the young girl to a Guest House at East Legon where the
accused demanded to have sex with her but the young girl refused with the
explanation that she had never had sex. The accused then taught the young girl
how to have oral sex after which he demanded to have anal sex which was turned
down by the young and innocent secondary school student.<o:p></o:p>After
this encounter, the accused then began sending pornographic videos depicting
anal sexual activities to the young female student. Later, the accused
succeeded in convincing the young girl to come to his house at Tse Addo, a
suburb of La, Accra, where he managed to have both oral and anal sex with the
young innocent girl. Thereafter, the accused had series of sexual encounters
with the victim whereat they engaged in both oral and anal sex. All the sexual
activities were recorded by the accused person against protestations of the
young girl.<o:p></o:p>At
other times, the accused requested the young girl to send videos and pictures
of her genitalia to him. When the young girl, subsequently, refused to heed the
invitations of the accused for more sexual encounters and also refused to send
any more videos and pictures of her genitals to him, the accused threatened to
publish nude photographs of the young girl. <o:p></o:p>In
the month of May 2016, the young girl saw her photographs depicting her engaged
in various oral and anal sexual activities without the face of the accused
person showing. By the 28th May 2016, the photographs and videos
have been viewed for not less than 360,000 times. <o:p></o:p>The
young female victim then reported to her mother who checked on Facebook and
traced the videos to a website called empressleaks.com. The mother of the young
girl lodged a report with the Ghana Police. Investigations led to the arrest of
the accused person. He was charged and arraigned before the High Court, Accra
for prosecution for the Offences of Defilement, contrary to section 101(2) of
the Criminal Offences Act, 1960, Act 29. The accused person was also charged
with three counts of Child Pornography contrary to section 136(b) of the
Electronic Transactions Act, 2008, Act 772.<o:p></o:p>Whiles
the trial was on-going, the Cybersecurity Act, 2020, Act 1038 was passed.
Section <a name="_Hlk135124446">98 of Act 1038 </a>repealed sections 118 and
136 of the Electronic Transactions Act, 2008, Act 772 in the following words:<o:p></o:p>Repeals and savings<o:p></o:p><a name="_Hlk135073080">