5
I shall now turn to the sexual offence charges in Counts I and II.
Suffice to say that to ground a conviction under Section 122 of the
Criminal Code, (Count I) Section 121 requires that the prosecution
must first establish the following:
(a) There was carnal knowledge of the Prosecutrix,
(b) The act was unlawful,
(c) The prosecutrix did not give her consent, and
(d) The act was that of the accused person.
I have carefully looked at Section 127 (1) of the Criminal Code, (Count
II) and it appears to me that the prosecution is required to establish
that:
(a) There was carnal knowledge of a girl,
(b) The act was unlawful,
(c) The girl was under the age of eighteen years, and
(d) The act was that of the accused person.
Section 180 (2) (a) of the Evidence Act makes it mandatory for the
evidence
of
the
prosecutrix
in
a
sexual
offence
case
to
be
corroborated. It is for this reason, that it is now good law in our
jurisdiction that in cases of a sexual character it is eminently
desirable that the evidence of the complainant be strengthened by
other evidence implicating the accused person in some material
particular. In other words, there must be some evidence tending to
confirm, support and or strengthen the evidence of the prosecutrix