By Aminata Phidelia Allie
Government consultant pathologist and chief forensic scientist in Sierra Leone, Dr. Simeon Owizz Koroma, is expected to testify in an alleged murder matter under preliminary investigations at Pademba Road Court No. 2.
The matter, before Magistrate Mohamed Seray-Wurie, involved a 21-year-old youth who allegedly stabbed his girlfriend to death in June over a mobile phone call she received whiles they were together.
According to police prosecutors handling the case, Aruna Morlai Sesay, a former cleaner at a hotel in Regent, used a kitchen knife to murder his girlfriend, Aminata Kargbo, in a bush outside the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary at Bathurst Village.
A fourth prosecution witness, who happened to be a community relations officer at the Congo Cross Police Division, told the court that he got a phone call from an unknown caller “who told me that he had seen a young lady lying in a pool of blood with stab wounds all over her body.”
Police Sergeant 2346, Samuel Davies, said that the anonymous caller also told him that the lady, whom the caller said was in a forest at the Tacugama Chimp Sanctuary in Bathurst Village, could be dead. He said the caller refused to reveal his identity to him, adding that he then passed on the message to the divisional crime officer “for immediate action”.
He told the court that when the accused was eventually arrested and brought to the station on Wednesday, 18 November, he (the accused) confessed to making the call back then. He said the accused also confessed to stabbing the deceased to death.
Another witness, a scene of crime officer at the Congo Cross Police Division, Police Sergeant 9363 Edward Abdul Kamara, explained that when he and a team of officers visited the scene in June, “We saw the deceased lying on her back in a pool of blood with stab wounds all over her body.”
He said they also saw a black handled blood stained knife, a pair of slippers, a knife purse and a male passport sized photograph. “I took snapshots of them all and I collected them by secure means.” He said they then conveyed the corpse to the Connaught Hospital Mortuary for an autopsy to be carried out on it.
A month later on 25 July, Sgt Kamara said a post mortem was carried out on the deceased in his presence, adding “I also took snapshots of it.” He tendered the photographs in court to form part of the evidence against the accused.
The stabbing to death of the accused on June 25 was as a result of jealousy emanating from a mobile phone call she had received whiles in the company of her then boyfriend, the accused. The accused, in an earlier statement, had said that the deceased was in the habit of receiving phone calls from male counterparts in his presence whenever they were together, adding that that had led to him stabbing her to death.
The matter comes up again on Wednesday, 3 December for the pathologist to tender his autopsy result in court.
In a spate matter, the police detective who got a bench warrant on Monday had testified in an alleged assault and wounding matter. Detective Police Constable 14218, David Moses Stanford Kalopito, who had great difficulty testifying before the court, probably because it was his first time, also tendered in court voluntary caution statements he took from an accused, Lansana Foray.
The accused got assurance from Magistrate Seray-Wurie and so it was up to him to consider his plea for mercy when he read the statement and took a decision.
Police prosecutor, woman police constable, Margaret Kpundeh, had also informed the court that the complainant had decided on an out-of-court- settlement, which could be clearly explained by the complainant’s absence from court for over two adjourned dates. The matter was adjourned to Tuesday, 2 December.
© Politico 27/11/14
