In a surprising twist, Emmanuel Kwasi Dawood Mensah, the former Central Regional Communication Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has been cleared of all charges and released by a Circuit Court in Cape Coast.
Dawood was accused of rape, incest, abortion, and assault against his own daughter, who was a Senior High School student (SHS).
The verdict, issued on January 22, 2024, also absolved Dawood’s friend and co-defendant, Attah Mensah, of the accusations leveled against them.
The charges included incest, defilement, abortion, and aiding abortion, all in contravention of Sections 101(2), 105, 84, 58, and 20 of The Criminal and Offences Act, 1960 Act 29.
Throughout the trial, the prosecution struggled to provide sufficient evidence to substantiate the charges, prompting Dorinda Smith Arthur, the presiding judge at the Cape Coast Circuit Court, to acquit and release the defendants.
Judge Smith Arthur expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of the investigation conducted.
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Below are the facts of the case per prosecution as captured in the judgment by Judge Smith Arthur:
“The summary of prosecution case is that the survivor (PW1) is eighteen years old and she is the biological daughter of the complainant (PW2) and biological daughter of second accused person (A2). First accused person (A1) is the friend of A2 whilst PW3 is the grandmother of PW1.
According to PW1, she confided in her school counsellor that A2, her biological father has been having sexual intercourse with her since 2019.
The counsellor was shocked and enquired whether she had informed anyone before and she answered no and explained that A2 had warned her not to inform anybody about it and that if she dared, he will make her life miserable and kill her.
She further stated that A2 also told her he will take her abroad for further studies when she completes her secondary school education.
She stated that A2 started having sexual intercourse with her from 2019 but during the covid era A2 came for her to live permanently with him to the disagreement of her mother PW2.
She said PW2 informed PW3 that if she has chosen to live with A2, then she should never return to her and she informed A2.
She said A2 had sex with her anytime he returned from his trips and whenever she refused him, he would remind her that PW2 had rejected her so if she did not agree he would reject her as well.
This made her succumb to his sexual demands until she became pregnant somewhere around September 2020.
She informed A2 about it and he told her not to worry.
She mentioned that in October 2020, A2 took her to see A1 at a restaurant.
When they went A1 was not there but he came later and A2 asked her to excuse them which she did and A2 had a discussion with A1.
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Later that day, A1 called PW1 and asked her to come to his house and gave her the direction. PW1 said she went with her friend and they met the wife of A1 in the house.
She said A1 made his wife leave with her friend to a different room and A1 tried to inject her.
She asked A1 why he is injecting her as she is not sick and A1 explained that it was her father who has instructed him to inject her.
So after the injection, A1 gave her some medications and she left for the house but did not take the medicine when she went home.
She started bleeding the following day from her vagina and she informed A2 who assured her nothing will happen to her as it is as a result of the injection.
She said, A2 informed A1 that PW1 went for a party after she completed JHS in 2020 and she became drunk and a guy had sex with her impregnating her and that is why he had asked her to abort.
She said A2 did not tell A1 the truth that he had impregnated her. According to PW1, she bled for two weeks and she informed A2 about it who kept assuring her nothing will happen to her.
She said A2 was not at Swedru all the time she was bleeding but at Cape Coast until the bleeding stopped when he returned.
She said when he returned he continued to have sex with her but she was not happy as he left her when she was bleeding and that made her to confide in her school counsellor and also because she had pains during the sexual intercourse.
She also informed the counsellor that A2 was giving her money after sexual intercourse and never visited her at her school and gave several excuses.
She mentioned that the counsellor told her to relay to him what A2 says when he calls her at the school as A2 used to call her through a woman in the school.
She said the counsellor called PW3 (the grandmother) and relayed what she told him to her and they vacated on the 27th of August 2021 so when she went home her grandfather told her not to go to A2’s house again so she agreed.
She went on an errand for the grandmother that evening and A2 who was in a taxi made the driver stopped, he used his leg to cross her making her fall.
He slapped her, stepped on her and beat her up then he pushed her into the taxi and the car took the direction of his house.
When they got to the house, A2 alighted to get his bag from the back of the car and she left the car and run away.
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She saw another taxi and boarded that one and asked the driver to take her to the police station. There was a man in the car who enquired why she wanted to go to the police station and she narrated her story as above to the man.
The man went with her to see her grandmother and they called the counsellor but it was late so the counsellor mentioned he would come to the house the following day.
PW3 called her uncle as she was agitated and she confirmed to the uncle what PW3 told him. They took her to PW2’s place on Monday and she repeated all that had happened to her.
They went to DOVVSU and reported the matter and she was given a medical form to attend hospital.”
