The trial of Dr Ram Beckley yesterday took a new turn when the prosecution told the Adjabeng Community Tribunal that the Police had no vehicle to convey the accused to court and there asked for adjournment.
No sooner had the tribunal, chaired by Mrs Elizabeth Ankomah obliged and adjourned the case to June 3, than Beckley materialised. He had been driven to court in a taxicab with one police patrol car escorting him. Too late for him, he was sent he was sent back to custody.
Superintendent of Police, Mr Patrick Sarpong had told the tribunal: "At the moment there is no vehicle to convey the accused to court.I have been instructed to take over the case and, therefore, I will need some time to study the docket very well. I will, therefore, crave the indulgence of the tribunal to adjourn the matter to June 3".
Dr Beckley, a private medical practitioner and an occultist, is charged with assaulting and kidnapping a class three pupil. He has pleaded not guilty.
Beckley was first arraigned on April 15 and has since been on remand.
The Prosecution told the tribunal, on April 12, Beckley, who was driving along the Gbawe-Mallam Road in Accra, saw a young girl selling vegetables. He pulled up near the girl and asked her to join him in the car to his house so that he could purchase some of the vegetables.
At Beckley's house, he tied the girl to a tree overnight without water and food, until her stepfather was informed and he raised the alarm.
Dr Beckley was arrested on Saturday April 13 after Police received a complaint from a parent that her daughter was allegedly abducted by the accused on Friday evening.
An angry mob set ablaze his residence and property running into millions of cedis at New Gbawe in Accra.
Dr. Beckley has become a favourite subject for the "social" newspapers because of the black magic airs about him. He appeals to current popular taste in Ghanaian and Nigerian video productions whose main themes are almost exclusively on black magic and witchcraft.
Posters of Beckley and his occult paraphernalia have become best sellers on the streets of Accra and other urban centres.
Eight years ago, he was arrested on similar charges but was letter set free for lack of prosecution. In an exclusive interview he gave The Accra Daily Mail in 1999, he explained his craft in these words:
Psychic Healing
If we follow the father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, in most of his books he made us understand that the human being is about three-fourth spiritual and the material forming only one-forth. If you follow the psychic or spiritual aspect of a human being you will tend to know more about the spiritual than the physical. Before a disease will attack anyone, it starts from the aura, from there to the soul and from the soul to the spirit. And when these three portions are conquered, then it now manifests on the physical things, but when you talking of something psychic, it is deep in understanding. There are some diseases for example like epilepsy; there is a spiritual backing. If you are experienced you have to exorcise the spiritual aspect of the disease before tackling the physical aspect and you will be successful. My colleagues will agree with me that there are a lot of diseases, which they cannot treat in hospital. They are sent to herbalists and people of deep wisdom and knowledge in the psychic world. Jesus Christ was a great physician and in the Bible, he would take some earth and spit on it and open your eyes. In some cases, he laid hands on or talked to people and their demons departed. He knew the spiritual aspect of the physical man.
