A convict who was sentenced to prison for defiling an eight-year-old girl, has had one year chopped off his eight-year jail term on appeal.
Elvis Amponsah filed an appeal before a High Court in Accra, seeking to set aside his conviction and sentence, claiming, among others that trial judge erred in concluding that there was a positive identification of him, despite evidence on record showing that the identification parade was legally and factually flawed.
The appeal filed by his lawyer, Jerry John Kofi Asiedu, also argued that the trial judge erred by failing to apply the proper legal test in evaluating the prosecution’s case, thereby occasioning a substantial miscarriage of justice.
“The Appellant as a young man has lost his liberty due to erroneous judgement of the trial court, which judgement has occasioned a miscarriage of justice. He shall suffer the consequences of having a criminal record unless he is rescued by the same law which condemned him, before he is lost to a decent society,” the appeal further added.
Elvis Amponsah, now 31, was accused of luring the eight-year-old victim into his friend’s room at Ofankor, in 2016, and forcibly inserted his fingers into her vagina and, thereafter, inserted his penis as well.
According to court documents, the victim, after the act, started bleeding. The convict escorted her outside the room and warned not to tell anyone about what had happened.
Later that evening, the complainant observed the victim’s blood-stained panties and upon questioning, the victim narrated her ordeal to the complainant, and a report was made.
The documents add that the victim did not know the convict, but when taken to the scene, she identified the convict among a group of people.
The convict after trial, was found guilty by a Circuit Court in Accra presided over by Justice Rita Abrokwah Doko, who sentenced him to eight years’ imprisonment in hard labour in November 2021.
But the convict, in his appeal, averred that the trial judge erred in disregarding the convict’s alibi that he was not at or near the crime scene on the material day and had no access to the room where the crime occurred.
The High Court judge, Justice Mary Yanzuh, in her judgement on the appeal held that the victim saw the accused in broad day light sexually assaulting her, hence her ability to point him out during the identification parade.
She further held that the evidence led by the prosecution was cogent to prove the identity of the accused.
The appellate court also found the alibi raised by the convict at trial to be an afterthought, and also held that the trial judge did not err in finding the accused guilty of the offence.
Justice Yanzuh therefore, upheld the conviction of Elvis Amponsah but decided to reduce the eight-year jail term to seven years, considering his youthful age.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak