Police officer Lisa Colley on Tuesday picked up from where she stopped in the rape trial of businessman Bubacarr Keita.
Colley had on July 7 testified they went to the Serrekunda General Hospital after visiting Mr Keita’s house in Tabokoto a day prior.
On Tuesday, she told Judge Momodou SM Jallow: “I left with the victim and the victim’s elder sister accompanied with a brother. I don’t know the name of that brother. On our arrival at the hospital, we first visited the labour ward. There we met a nurse, a lady but we don’t know her name. The matter was explained to her. Then the victim was asked to lie down on the bed. There, the said nurse did the checking. There she confirmed that there is a pregnancy of four to five months. From there we were sent to one of the senior doctors whom I later know to be Dr Daffeh.”
Alasan Jobe prosecuting asked her who referred her to Dr Daffeh and the witness replied that it was the nurse “we met at the labour ward”.
She continued: “On our arrival at Dr Daffeh’s office, the matter was narrated to him. Myself, the victim, the elder sister and Dr Daffeh himself took us to a an office, there is a bed where the victim was asked to lie on that bed. The victim was asked to undress a second time and lie on that bed. She was examined for the second time by Dr Daffeh again.”
The witness then explained when asked by Jobe how Dr Daffeh examined her: “He put on gloves, he used a torch light where the victim was asked to spread her legs. There Dr Daffeh came in and did the examining. Dr Daffeh used his hand and put it in the private part of the victim who was lying on the bed. He held something in his hand that he used to examine the victim but I don’t know the name of the instrument. When he was done, the victim was asked to come down and dress up.
“Dr Daffeh confirmed that the victim was four to five months pregnant too. Dr Daffeh wrote the remarks he examined from the victim in the police medical book. The police medical book was signed by our office before we departed.”
According to the witness, they were assigned by their OC at Bundung station to write a report about the case “which I did and it was attached to the file and the file was sent to Bundung Police Station to our OC’s office”.
Elsewhere, the witness said she came to know about the complainant’s boyfriend Pa Modou Johm “during the case”. When asked how she knew who he was, she said “at that time they said he was boyfriend to the victim”. She also said Johm was charged but not at her level.
Still on Johm, the prosecuting lawyer asked her if she had anything or any evidence linking Johm to the alleged rape of the complainant but the witness said she did know much about Johm.
“In Pa Modou’s case I do not know much about him. The only part I know about him is when text messages were printed, he was communicating with the victim,” she testified.
The prosecuting lawyer then sparked protest from the defense when he asked the witness if text messages between the complainant and Johm showed or suggested they were intimate. He then withdrew the question after the defense counsel Lamin Camara argued it was against the principle of evidence to question a witness on something that is not before the court.
Moving on, the prosecuting lawyer then gave a document to the witness and asked if that was the report she prepared. The witness said it was the report. She said she identified it through her signature when the prosecuting lawyer asked how she was able to identify it. The report was then admitted as a prosecution exhibit.
More follows…
