Speak up against any unwanted sexual advances – Lawyer advises women

Legal practitioner, Mr Lamtiig Apanga has advised women to deter from encouraging rapists by giving them a clear signal of their disinterest in having any sexual relations with them.

According to Mr Apanga, some of the rape perpetrators think they have successfully created a romantic connection with their victims because their victims do not clearly speak up at the onset of their attempts to create a sexually enabling environment with them.

“Sometimes it’s good to draw the lines, don’t mix pure platonic friendships with flirtatious relationships unless you intend to carry on as such. Don’t create the impression that you want it but you’re waiting or sizing the other party. It is good to draw the lines as much as possible and watch out for the early warning signs. If you are interested go ahead, if you are not interested in any sexual act, the earlier you draw the person’s attention, the better. But if you are responding in that sweet, romantic and flirtatious manner, the person is likely to attempt the act on the wrong impression that he has your consent,” he said in an interview with GhanaWeb today, June 17, 2020.

He also added that the state will not be able to successfully prosecute alleged sexual offenders if complainants push the cases to the courts, only to withdraw them later, for whatever reason.

“If alleged victims lodge complaints with the police, and because it’s a criminal case, it is essentially being handled by the state on behalf of the victim. The offence is against the victim, but it is also against the state. The state takes it upon itself to prosecute on her behalf. The victim becomes a witness to the state, and that is why the state will need the victim, and if the victim shows no interest in the matter, it becomes difficult for the state to proceed with the prosecution,” he clarified.

He concluded that the country is recording relatively high cases of defilement, especially cases involving the younger population so it is important that sexual offenders are duly tried and convicted where the evidence supports the crime, in order to reform perpetrators and to deter others people from engaging in similar offences.

“In our case in Ghana, we are getting more and more issues of defilement. It is getting more worrying because it has to do with children. The perpetrators need to be duly prosecuted and when convicted, they must be sentenced with the aim to reform them and the harshness of the sentence should deter members of the public and the convict from repeating similar offences. The main aim of the prosecutions is reformation and deterrence. To correct the behavioural patterns of offenders and to discourage other people from copying such behaviour,” he stated.