By Mohamed Foday Conteh
One Joseph Gbanie is on trial at High Court No.3 in Freetown presided by Justice Samuel Omodele Taylor on allegations that he strangled his girlfriend to death some time in March 2020.
New evidence emerge, yesterday 19th August 2021 when then State pathologist, Dr. Simeon Owizz Koroma testified in court after being led by State prosecutor, Solomon Christian Kekura.
Gbanie was arraigned in court on allegations of murder. The prosecution is alleging the accused manually strangled his girlfriend one Jenneh Buanie at their residence at New London Street, Leicester Village. The girlfriend later died at the Connaught Hospital, 11 days after the attack.
Dr. Owizz told the court that the victim’s body was handed over to him for an autopsy to ascertain the cause of death. The forensic pathologist said that the autopsy was done in the hospital’s morgue in the presence of relatives of the deceased and investigative officers of both CID and Mountain Police Post.
During the autopsy, Dr. Owizz said that he found out that the neck of the alleged victim was swollen but that the head remained intact with no crack. He added that it was due to the inflammation on the neck that prodded him to perform an internal autopsy on the corpse.
During the internal autopsy, Dr. Owizz said he found out there was excessive bleeding in the tissues around the neck which had resulted in the interruption of flow of oxygen to the brain. He concluded that based on his professional experience, the death of Buanie was unnatural.
During cross-examination by defence counsel Lamin J. Kamara, Dr. Owizz said that it was the hospital records that informed him that the deceased had been admitted to Connaught Hospital 11 days before her death. He denied knowledge that the deceased was actually brought in dead from 34 Military Hospital. He confirmed in court that there were no scratches or finger nail marks on the neck of the said victim. He also added that it is possible for scratches to be missing in cases of manual strangulation.
The pathologist also frowned at the defense when asked whether he had had a chat with relatives of the deceased before and after the said autopsy. He said that such is not part of his practice as a pathologist.
Justice Taylor adjourned the matter for 26th August 2021 with another prosecution witness due to testify.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (20/08/21)
