Dr Babanding Daffeh has completed giving testimony in the rape trial of businessman Bubacarr Keita, telling the high court in Bundung his medical reports did not indicate who the alleged perpetrator is.
Mr Keita, 29, finally returned to court on Wednesday after a three-month break, with Dr Daffeh responding to questions from the businessman’s lawyer.
Returning to the witness box, Dr Daffeh explained his medical reports could help know who the alleged perpetrator is, but Keita’s lawyer Lamin Camara insisted the reason alleged perpetrators do not appear on medical examination reports is that they could not tell one who the alleged perpetrator is.
Dr Daffeh said: “Certainly no because any findings in the medical reports for the victims are in relation to what happened to the victims and not who was the alleged perpetrator.”
“And therefore Doctor, your examinations of the complainant in both Exhibit E and F did not point to who did what but what happened to the complainant right?” Keita’s lawyer asked.
Dr Daffeh said: “Obviously the report does not point directly to who the alleged perpetrator is but if you look at the report and you look at the two fundamental issues I addressed two months ago, that those issues are in record, if you compare with the findings of my investigations as a doctor… The two scannings, the first being Exhibit E and the second being Exhibit F and there is another report which was tendered here before.
“So if you look at the medical reports, the age of the pregnancy [which was] four months-four-weeks and then the scanning that was done initially at family planning on the 6th of November 2019 and the one done at our hospital, which was at four months, five weeks, will definitely address those two fundamental issues and who might be the alleged perpetrator.”
Keita’s lawyer who was clearly not impressed asked again: “Dr Daffeh, my question is simple: did you find who the alleged perpetrator is medically in your reports?” Dr Daffeh replied: ‘No’.
The judge had intervened after the prosecuting attorney Alasan Jobe complained that the defence lawyer should not try to force the witness to a no-or-yes answer.
“We take objection to counsel trying to force the witness to a ‘yes-or-no’ answer.”
“It’s overruled,” the judge quickly interjected, adding “It’s a straightforward answer.”
Elsewhere, Dr Daffeh insisted his investigation as a medical doctor goes beyond medical examination.
“It goes beyond medical examination,” Dr Daffeh said.
“Like what?” Lawyer Camara asked.
“Treatment, counselling, obviously the report that we write, all part of the medical examination,” the witness answered.
Lamin Camara followed up: “Are these three not medically related?”
“They are medically related,” Dr Daffeh responded.
