hypothesis than that of his guilt particularly as all doubts must be
resolved in favour of the accused.
Having carefully read through the various briefs of arguments filed
and having also carefully considered the totality of evidence adduced
before this Court, it seems to me that only one issue stands out for
determination in this case, and that is, whether the accused had sexual
intercourse with the prosecutrix?
The prosecution in urging me to answer this question in the affirmative
has placed heavy reliance on the extra-judicial statements of the
accused person made to the police after his arrest. These statements
which are pure confessions of the offence of rape were later retracted
by the accused person during the trial.
In urging me to answer this question in the negative the defence has
contended forcefully that the inability of the prosecutrix to testify in
support of the allege rape meant that there was no evidence that could
be corroborated at all. Learned defence counsel submitted that by
virtue of section 180 (2) (a) of the Evidence Act, the court must seek for
corroboration of the evidence of the prosecutrix in sexual offence cases.
This submission in my view is misconceived. Section 180 (2) (a) of the
Evidence Act simply provides thus;
“…a court shall not in the following cases, act on
uncorroborated evidence …
(a) cases of rape and other sexual offences against the
complainants;” (emphases mine).
4