RPA 00289/2016/HC/KIG Page |2 II. ANALYSIS OF ISSUES a) With respect to defects in evidence 5. In the first instance, the Nyarugenge High Court convicted MIGAMBI Joseph of child defilement, based on the fact that the child had accused him of sexually assaulting her four times, and her mother, MUKAMANA Alice stated that he had spent the night at the child's home, with the child's mother, and the girl told them that it was MIGAMBI Joseph who raped her, and that he had raped her four times, and that the Court relied on the results of the investigation it conducted into the crime scene, during which the child, ISHIMWE Chanelle, showed where she was raped, and indicated that MIGAMBI Joseph was living with another boy whose name she does not know, and another respondent named Chick, explained that the place where the girl was allegedly raped was not where MIGAMBI Joseph lived, but his friends, that he used to visit the place and that it is by the way to the well, which the Court confirmed with the medical report that the child has lost her virginity; 6. The foregoing was the basis of the first instance court judgment, which MIGAMBI Joseph appealed against asking to be acquitted, alleging that he was wrongly convicted based on the child's mother's statement which contradicts the medical report because the child and her mother said she was raped four times, while the medical report shows that she was raped only once, claiming that she was falsely accused because of a dispute with the child's mother, who used to live in their home and stole from it before walking away; 7. The Prosecution argues that this appeal is unfounded, as in the first instance there was unequivocal evidence, and submits that the medical report that Joseph relies on did not intend to prove how many times the girl was raped, but it assessed whether she was raped and found so; b) The Court's analysis 8. The Court finds that the above mentioned reasons could not be compelling evidence to hold a conviction, because ISHIMWE Chanelle told her mother and her mother’s sister MUKAMANA Alice that MIGAMBI Joseph had raped her, the information was also submitted to the investigating authorities to gather evidence to prove whether the allegations were true, the medical report confirmed that the child had indeed been raped, that ISHIMWE Chanelle pointed out where she had been raped, and that MIGAMBI Joseph had been there, it is not a proof that MIGAMBI Joseph had committed the offence, as her saying should have been corroborated by evidence, but clearly no evidence was given, which means that there is no evidence that it was MIGAMBI Joseph who raped 2|Page