Queenie
A first defense witness in the case in which 26 -year-old Queenie Akuffo is being tried for allegedly assaulting her co-tenant sexually with a vibrator, yesterday testified in the trial.
The witness, Dorcas Manubea Atiemo, a cleaner at the Ministry of Information and resident of Ablekuma in Accra said the accused is her sister.
She told the Accra Domestic Violence and Gender Based Court presided over by Mrs. Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku that she goes to Queenie’s house anytime she has a power outage in her house.
Dorcas said anytime she visited, she saw the victim, Janet Amankwah, 22 in the house whom the accused introduced to her as Mariama.
The court further heard in the evidence led by Andrew Vortia, lawyer for the accused that Janet and Queenie wash and cook together and that on the day of the incident she was in the residence of the accused and saw both Janet and her sister drinking what she claimed was “Club Beer”.
Dorcas stated that at about 6:30pm on the same day when she was leaving her sister’s residence both the accused and the victim were happy adding that that was not the first time she had seen Janet happy.
The Information Ministry cleaner recalled that the first time she saw the accused and Janet happy was during the birthday of Queenie sometime last year.
The witness again told the court that at the said birthday party, the victim and Queenie cooked and drank “Club Beer” insisting that Janet was “happy” at the event.
She said she was at the police station when the accused was arrested by the police and they did not allow her to write her statement.
Under cross-examination, the prosecutor, Detective Inspector Judith B. Asante wanted to know the distance between Dorcas’ residence and that of Janet, a question she answered by saying that she lives at Ablekuma and the victim at Pentecost both suburbs of Accra.
Mrs Adjin-Doku has however adjourned further cross-examination of the witness. The case continues on December 21.
Queenie allegedly committed the act at about 6pm on January 25 this year at Ablekuma in Accra where both of them reside.
According to the prosecution, Queenie asked other witnesses around to leave and she locked her bedroom but a 13-year-old witness went to peep through the window of the accused person and saw her (Queenie) inserting the artificial male organ into the victim’s private part.
The victim’s brother, one Nana Sasu, saw the act and alerted her mother (the complainant).
They rushed to the aid of Janet and saw her lying naked in Queenie’s bedroom with vomit all over her body.
The artificial organ was found on top of Queenie’s wardrobe while a video recording of the act was also found on her Infinix mobile phone.
Queenie, in her caution statement to the police, admitted the offence.
By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
jeffdegraft44@yahoo.com