Jesus Onetouch's Woes Deepen

SOME HUMAN Rights Advocacy groups have filed an application at an Accra High Court requesting to be joined to the case of Prophet Kofi Yirenkyi aka Jesus Onetouch, the Founder and General Overseer of Jesus Blood Prophetic Ministry, as interested parties.

This was made known yesterday by Justice Emmanuel Dzakpasu, the High Court judge who was expected to deliver a judgment on an appeal filed by the Prophet challenging his ten-year jail term.

The judge told the defence counsel, in the absence of the state attorney, that he had received a copy of the application and that the said activists were praying the court to consider them as amicus curiae so they could bring on board certain views that could help in the determination of the case.

K.N. Adomako Acheampong, the defence lawyer, expressed surprise at the turn of events, saying they did not know anything about the process. He however did not object to the application.

Justice Dzakpasu told counsel that even though his judgment was ready, he would like to have a look at what the advocacy groups had filed. He therefore adjourned the matter to March 30 for judgment.

Onetouch is appealing against his jail term on grounds that Justice Georgina Mensah-Datsa, the trial judge, had erred in her judgment by not taking into consideration serious doubts created in the case of the prosecution.

The prosecution, led by Principal State Attorney Anthony Rexford Wiredu, and counsel for Onetouch, K. N. Adomako Acheampong, did not argue their stands on the appeal in court but only said they relied on the processes they had filed.

It would be recalled that over a year ago, Prophet Onetouch was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in hard labour by the Accra Circuit Court for defilement and incest.

Justice Georgina Mensah-Datsa had found him guilty of having sexual intercourse with his 10-year-old biological daughter but the Prophet, who believed he had been framed up, while being escorted to jail, still maintained that he did not commit the crime, screaming, “God should kill me if I defiled my daughter”.

Justice Mensah-Datsa, currently a High Court judge, in her judgment that lasted for about 25 minutes, indicated that the victim was truthful as her evidence was corroborated by prosecution witnesses and medical reports.

According to the judge, the two reports from doctors who had examined the victim indicated that the victim’s hymen was not intact and that corroborated victim’s story.

After her judgment, she told Onetouch it was not the end of the road for him and advised that he could appeal against her decision if he was not satisfied with it.

Jesus Onetouch, after serving five months of his jail term, bounced back and filed an appeal challenging the judgment by the Circuit Court on grounds that the judge had erred in the judgment because the defence had created sufficient doubts in the case of the prosecution which could have led to his acquittal.

Onetouch, the appellant, observed that “the trial judge convicted and sentenced him without adverting her mind on the evidence given by one of the prosecution’s own witness, ACP Dr. Samuel Amo-Mensah, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Police Hospital.”

The judge, he also indicated, did not take into consideration the testimony of a police officer stationed at Akropong who was part of the investigating team that had built the case docket and also served as an independent witness of the appellant.

These two pieces of evidence, the appellant noted, raised serious doubts in the case of the prosecution.

The appellant, who observed that Mrs. Datsa failed “to advert her mind on the sheer implausibility of the evidence especially that of Bernice Owiredu, the mother and victim, adduced for the prosecution”, is praying the High Court to quash the decision of the lower court because it was an erroneous one.

It is reported that while in prison, Onetouch thought of killing himself and as a result had embarked on a hunger strike to end it all. However, through counselling, he managed to adjust himself to prison life.