He said he would ‘break me’; How 30-year Oakwood School teacher escaped jail
However, at the end of the trial, the court held that the accused, per his defense, had been able to raise a reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case and was thus acquitted and discharged.
A 30-year-old English teacher at Oakwood Community School in Tema, Johnny Arthur, was charged for allegedly defiling a pupil of the school and brought before the Tema Circuit Court ‘A’ presided over by Her Honour Agnes Opoku-Barnieh.
However, at the end of the trial, the court held that the accused, per his defense, had been able to raise a reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case and was thus acquitted and discharged.
It was the case of the prosecution that the accused proposed love to the victim, in March 2020, and by the 23rd of the same month and also on April 19, 2020, he had sex with her and told her not to tell anybody.
The victim, Nathaniella Mawuena Sewornu, later confided in a reproductive health officer at Compassion International, who informed her mother, leading to a police report and the accused person’s subsequent arrest and prosecution.
In her testimony at the court, the victim said that she initially refused the teacher’s love proposal, but he persisted by even buying a Valentine's toffee for her on February 14, 2020, after which he called her on March 23 of the same year, to visit him.
She added that upon visiting him, the accused told him upon entering his room that he was going to ‘break her’ after which he forcefully had sex with her and also on a later date.
In his defense, however, the accused person raised the defense of alibi that during the mentioned dates, he was with some family members since it was the lockdown period and schools had closed down.
In the end, the court established that the accused person had successfully raised a reasonable doubt in the case of the prosecution and thus pronounced him not guilty.
