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Bed sheet tendered in rape case

May 19, 2014, 11:05 AM | Article By: Malamin L.M. Conteh

A bed sheet alleged to have been recovered from an alleged rape scene was recently tendered at the High Court in Banjul, presided over by Justice Mikailu Abdulai.

This was after the defence counsel from the Legal Aid, Mr Thom, made the application for the said bed sheet to be tendered and admitted in evidence as an exhibit.

Particulars of the offence revealed that the accused, Sulayman Jallow, on 12 February 2014, had an unlawful carnal knowledge of an underage girl, thereby committing an offence contrary to the laws of The Gambia.

Ousman Sonko, a police attached to the Bundung Borehole Police Station, under cross-examination, said he obtained both cautionary and voluntary statements from the accused, after reading cautionary wordings to him.

He also informed the court that he visited the scene of the incident and the victim in hospital.

The legal aid counsel asked the witness about the type of items investigators had recovered from the scene of the alleged crime and what evidential value they have to suggest that the accused had committed the alleged offence.

The witness said the bed sheet stained with blood and few other items purportedly recovered.

The defense counsel then requested for the said bed sheet, to question the witness on that.

The witness was asked to show the court where the alleged blood stains were and what had made him believed it was a blood stain. 

The witness then stretched the bed sheet for the viewing of the court and allocated the place where the alleged blood stain was on the bed sheet.