Rape attempt failed as rapist fails to erect.

An Accra High Court has sentenced a secondhand clothes dealer to 15 years imprisonment in hard labour for robbing and indecently assaulting a waitress of a hotel in Accra.
The accused person, James Adjei, robbed the complainant and inserted his fingers into her vagina, when his attempt to rape her failed, as a result of erectile dysfunction.



Adjei, who was charged with the driver of a taxi cab, currently at large, pleaded not guilty to the charges of conspiracy, robbery and indecent assault, however, the court, presided over by Justice C.A. Wilsoon, pronounced a verdict of guilty on him.

According to the court, the prosecution had discharged its onus of proving the guilt of the accused person beyond all reasonable doubt.

He was, therefore, convicted to 12 years imprisonment each on the count of conspiracy and robbery, to run concurrently, and a further three years imprisonment on the count of indecent assault.

It was the evidence of the complaint that shortly after taking off, the accused person ordered her to lie prostrate in the car after they had driven a distance away to a secluded place, and that she was unable to resist effectively, because the accused person had pulled out and pointed a knife at her waist, as he pulled her out of the vehicle, kicked her onto the ground, and poured the contents of her handbag into the vehicle, the court indicated.

“She further testified that the accused person pointed a knife at her while she lay on the ground, and demanded a sexual somehow paranoid and frightened, gave in, but the accused person could not attain an erection, so he inserted his finger into her vagina,” the court pointed out.

The complainant, who boarded a taxi cab with the accused person seated at the back passenger seat, felt paranoid and didn’t resist when the accused person threatened her with a knife around his waist, after she was driven to a secluded place at Nungua, a suburb of Accra.

The complainant, a few months later, she spotted the accused person at the premises of a hotel, identified him as the one who robbed and tried to rape her, confronted him, and asked: “do you know me?”

The accused then became upset and tried to sneak out of the premises of the hotel, but the complainant raised an alarm, leading to his arrest by security officers of the hotel, the court noted.

However, in his defense, the convict indicated that he went to the hotel on his itinerary rounds to sell, but decided to pass water, so he asked the complaint, who was a waitress of the hotel, to direct him to the washroom.

It was there and then that the complainant called the security guards to arrest him, and further denied being scared of the presence of the security men, the court noted.
The court noted that the assertion of the defense that the complainant failed to report the matter to the police until seven months later, could not be grounded in law.
“There is, however, no rule of law that people who are victims of trauma will behave, some would make an immediate complaint, and some would delay in disclosing the abuse, while others would not disclose the abuse at all. Reasons for the delay may include embarrassment, fear or guilt. A delay in disclosure standing alone will never give rise to an adverse inference against the credibility of the complainant,” the court emphasized.