Court acquits, discharges teacher for wrongful imprisonment

A teacher who served 15 years in jail for defilement was last Thursday acquitted and discharged by the Supreme Court after the court held that he was wrongly convicted.

Eric Asante was on September 5, 2005 jailed 15 years with hard labour by the Tamale High Court for allegedly defiling and impregnating a 14-year-old girl who was his student. The student claimed that Mr Asante was her lover and had on many occasions had sexual relations with her.

Throughout the trial and even in prison, Mr Asante consistently denied the charges levelled against him and insisted that he had never had any amorous relationship with the student.

The teacher, therefore, initiated an appeal process at the Court of Appeal to prove his innocence, but unfortunately for him in October 2006, the Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal and upheld his conviction.

Not satisfied, Mr Asante appealed to the Supreme Court in 2012. The apex court called for a DNA test to be conducted to ascertain whether the teacher was the father of the child born from the pregnancy.

DNA

In a unanimous decision last Thursday, the five-member panel ruled that the DNA test proved that Mr Asante was not the biological father of the baby and, therefore, he could not have been responsible for the pregnancy.

“A DNA test conducted by the forensic department of the Ghana Police Service on July 7, 2015 excluded Mr Asante as the father of the child,’’ the court held.

“The court accordingly acquits and discharges the appellant,’’ the court said.

The judgement was read by Mr Justice Gabriel Pwamang, while Mr Justice Anin Yeboah presided over the five-member panel.

Other members were Mr Justice Yaw Appau, Mr Justice Baffoe-Bonnie and Mr Justice Sule Gbadegbe.

Falsehood

According to the court, the alleged victim, by lying about who impregnated her, was dishonest during her testimony at the trial and, therefore, her evidence was “deliberately false”.

“If she chose to lie about the pregnancy, then her other testimony could not be relied upon,’’ the court asserted.

No evidence

The court, in upholding Mr Asante’s appeal, further held that apart from the pregnancy, the prosecution in the trial that led to the conviction also failed to present any other evidence to show that the alleged victim was indeed defiled.

“The medical doctor who examined the alleged victim claimed that due to the pregnancy, there was no need to check the vagina of the girl for any act of defilement. The presence of the pregnancy misled the prosecution that the appellant (Mr Asante) was guilty,’’ it held.

Compensation

After the judgement, counsel for Mr Asante, Mr Francis Xavier Sosu, prayed the court to give an order that would award compensation to his client.

The court, however, directed him to make a formal application that his client was seeking compensation.