Court orders psychiatric examination on minor’s killer
A High Court in Accra on Tuesday ordered the Chief Psychiatrist at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital to conduct medical examination on Lucas Agboyie, a Togolese national and mason apprentice who allegedly strangled a minor to death after defiling her.
This is to enable the court to ascertain whether Agboyie was mentally fit to stand trial or otherwise.
The court therefore directed the case investigator, Detective Chief Inspector Simon Apiorsonu of the Ghana Police Service Homicide Unit to ensure that the orders of the court were carried out.
According to the court the medical report on the accused persons should be ready by March 9 adjourned the matter to March 19.
This decision followed complaint by Mr Eric Opoku, counsel for Agboyie that he was unable to have meaningful conference with him so as to mount a defence for the accused for the trial.
Mr Opoku therefore repeated an application before the court presided over by Mr Justice Charles Ekow Baiden to make orders so that the accused person would undergo psychiatric examination.
According to Mr Opoku, there were visible antics that Agboyie portrays while in Court and at the Nsawam Medium Prisons and that gives course to the fact that he was mentally challenged.
Defence counsel said the stories he also hears about his client after visiting him in prison custody showed that he was not mentally sound.
Agboyie aka Sympathy, Sky Lover, Agbey or Gabriel was committed by an Accra District Court on April 2017, to stand trial at High Court for the death of a seven-year-old girl in the year 2015 at Zenu, near Ashiaman.
Prosecution case was that the victim Ruth Ankomah was a pupil of Meshach Academy School at Zenu, Ashiaman. On April 2015, at about 0800 hours, the deceased mother prepared porridge and gave GH 20 cedis to the deceased to buy bread at a nearby shop for breakfast.
The Prosecution said having waited for a long time without Ruth’s return, the mother became alarmed and started searching for Ruth in the area but to no avail.
Prosecution said later one Sarah informed the victim’s mother that she saw Agboyie pulling the victim into his metal container. A group of people joined her mother and they marched onto Agboyie’s container but could not find him.
However, they found the naked lifeless body of the victim lying in a supine position on an old student mattress with blood oozing from her nostrils and mouth.
Agboyie was nabbed by the search party and during the search, he confessed killing the victim after having sex with her for an hour.
According to prosecution, Agboyie explained that he wanted to have sex with the victim but she kept screaming hence he strangled her after which he had sex with her.
When the Police visited the scene in April 2015, they saw bruises on the neck of the deceased with her vagina swollen, while her pants, sandals and dress were lying beside her.
They also found two wrappers of cannabis sativa, GH₵10.00, a National Health Insurance card and another Hospital card bearing the name of one Obeng Oscar.
Agboyie further mentioned one Ali Baba who lived nearby as the one who contracted him to kill the victim. When the police proceeded to the house of Ali Baba they found out that there was nobody in house by that name and the said house was occupied by a medical doctor.
The medical doctor upon interrogation denied knowing the accused and Police investigations also did not get any link of the murder with the doctor.
Prosecution said when autopsy was conducted on the victim, it indicated that the victim died as a result of consistent strangling.
Source: GNA