Man regains freedom after being wrongfully jailed for 15 years

Mr Charles Twumasi, 38, an accounts clerk was sentenced to 15 years in prison for allegedly defiling a 12-year pupil of a school he works at.

A three member panel of the court ruled unanimously that that there was no evidence that linked him to the said defilement and also that some of the evidence was deliberately distorted to aid his conviction.

“We, therefore, set aside the conviction by the trial circuit court, as affirmed by the High Court, on the grounds that the conviction was unreasonable and, furthermore, it is not supported, having regard to evidence on record.

“The appellant (Twumasi) is hereby acquitted and discharged and should be released from prison forthwith,” the Court of Appeal ordered.

Twumasi was accused of defiling the 12-year-old girl in September 2012 when she went to pay her feeding fee at the school’s accounts office.

He was on remand and in prison for seven years until he was discharged and acquitted on February 13, this year in a judgment read by Mr Justice Dennis Adjei, who presided over the Court of Appeal panel, with Justices Cecelia Sowah and Amadu Tanko as members.

Twumasi’s lawyer, who argued for his acquittal, is Mr Saani Mahmoud Abdul–Rasheed of the Legal Aid Scheme, while the state was represented by Ms Sefako Batse, a Principal State Attorney.