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Court discharges defilement suspect for lack of victim's birth certificate

The case was aborted because the victims parents could not produce her birth certificate to prove her age.

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The 40-year-old man admitted defiling the 13-year-old class two girl at Nyanshegu in Tamale.

The Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the police service in the region confirmed that it had terminated the prosecution.

According to the Tamale DOVVSU, the decision to abort the case was to enable prosecutors pursue the document and gather more evidence.

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Nashiru Seidu was arrested by the Police on August 27 this year, after he was allegedly caught in his room having sex with the little girl.

The suspect lured the girl into his room and succeeded in having sex with her when the victim went to draw water from a well in his house.

Reports suggest that, Nashiru Seidu was caught red-handed by the suspicious mother of the victim having sex with her. She raised alarm after intruding the room of the suspect, attracting witnesses to the scene.

Eventhough a medical report confirmed that the child has had sexual intercourse many times, Nasheru told the police during his arrest that the girl was his fiancée and that they fell in love three months ago.

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But for the intervention of the Regional Health directorate, the family of the victim would have accepted an out of court settlement offer extended to them by relatives of the suspect, because the former did not have money to afford the cost of the medical examination.

It was heartwarming to the family when the suspect was remanded into police custody for a week and reappeared in court on Tuesday for further hearing of the case.

However, everything turned unbelievable when prosecutors announced discontinuation of the case for lack of evidence, because the birth certificate of the victim couldn’t be obtained. The presiding Judge was left with no option, but to grant bail and discharge the suspect.

The weird nature of the court proceedings infuriated members of the community, but the suspect still maintains that, he has been in a relationship with the victim for more than 12weeks before they were caught having sex. He claimed the agreement was for him to marry the child.

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Per the laws of Ghana, defilement is the natural or unnatural canal knowledge of a child under sixteen years of age whether with, or without consent.  Offenders are liable to summary convictions to terms of imprisonment not less than seven years and maximum of twenty-five years.

The Northern regional DOVVSU chief DSP Emmanuel Holortu who took briefing from the prosecutor said due to the complexity of the particular case, it was very difficult to prove a case, let alone starting an argument without the birth certificate of the victim.

The DOVVSU chief discounted claims that the man was caught in the act by the mother of the victim. He explained that a brother of the victim reported the case to the police who later ascertained the claim through the medical test.

He indicated that, because the victim did not deny the claim by the suspect that they were lovers and also failed to report earlier sexual assaults, the need arose to obtain the birth certificate of the victim to strengthen evidence. He said that was what necessitated the discontinuation of the case for a wider probe.

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However, the Regional Coordinator emphasised that, the termination of the case did not mean the suspect was acquitted, saying he could be rearrested if more concrete evidence is found against him.

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