Defence opens in alleged assault case

The ongoing assault case involving one Daniel Thomas resumed recently before Magistrate Lamin George of the Kanifing Magistrates' Court with the testimony of the first defence witness Sira Saho.

It would be recalled that the trial magistrate earlier overruled the no-case submission filed by the defence counsel, Sagarr Jahateh, in defence of her client, Daniel Abel Thomas.

Mr Thomas is standing trial on assault on count one, and assault causing grievous bodily harm on count two, a charge he has denied.

In her testimony, defence witness one (DW1), Sira Saho says she is a resident of Bakau who lives near the accused's compound, and could remember the day of the incident.

According to her, on the day in question, she was in her house when she heard some noise on the door of the accused's compound.

"I came out to find out what was happening and I saw PW1 and a man removing the door," she explained.

The witness alleged that the complainant, PW1 and the man opened the door with a hammer and iron and entered into the house. She further noted that after a while, she saw the accused coming with his vehicle, adducing that the accused asked them to leave the compound.

When they were about to leave, Mrs Saho told the court, the man that accompanied PW1 then attacked the accused, but the accused pushed him and he fell down. "That was the only attack I saw," she told the court.

Still narrating, the witness asserted that she used to see the accused coming into the compound, but had never seen the complainant in the said compound.

"I some times used to see PW1 with army and police officers, but I never went to them," Mrs Saho explained.

She further adduced that she did not know that the said compound belonged to the complainant's husband.

She however denied that the accused damaged a welding machine at the scene.

The trial was adjourned till 22 December 2010.