7
The nature of corroboration must also depend on the particular
circumstances of each case and where an accused person has denied
the allegation of rape, as in the instant case, the evidence of
corroboration that the Court must look for, is for instance (a) medical
evidence showing injury to the private part or to other parts of her
body which may have been occasioned in a struggle, and (b) semen
stains on her clothes or the clothes of the accused person on the
place where the offence is alleged to have been committed (POSU V.
THE STATE (2011) LPELR-SC. 134/2010).
In exhibits “F1-F2” the medical reports of PW2 and PW3, there is
evidence of penile penetration and a broken hymen. These pieces of
evidence were unchallenged and uncontroverted. I admit them as
establishing the facts therein. These pieces of evidence corroborate
the evidence of PW2 and PW3 of the repeated sexual encounters they
had with the accused person. I therefore find as a fact that the
accused had sexual intercourse with PW2 and PW3.
I must confess that, while there is evidence on record corroborating
the subsequent voluntary sexual encounters between the accused and
PW2 and PW3, there is no evidence on record corroborating the
purported first and involuntary sexual encounter between PW2 and the
accused. The available evidence on record therefore falls short of the
mandatory requirements of Sections 180 (2) (a) of the Evidence Act.
The issue of forcible coitus in this regard, has in my view not been
established with the certainty required by law. In view of this finding,