Gad Cobbinah, counsel for Henry Alibah, the 21-year-old student who posted nude pictures of his former girlfriend on Facebook, yesterday had a hectic time convincing an Accra Circuit Court judge, Ellen Vivian Amoah, to spare his client a custodial sentence.
He spent well over half an hour pleading profusely with the relieving judge to temper justice with mercy especially when Alibah out-rightly pleaded guilty to the charge.
When the case was called yesterday, his counsel persisted in a plea for mitigation. He told the court that his 21-year-old client was extremely sorry and that he had learnt his lessons.
The Counsel stated, “The issues of custodial sentence should not be the preferred choice…the law does not constrain you from giving a human face to the law.”
He further pleaded, “spare us the rod of custodial sentence and save our future.”
Prosecuting, Detective Inspector Kofi Atimbire said that the complainant is a student while the accused person is also a student and that the complainant was a fiancee to the accused for two years, but about three 3 months ago, the complainant decided to terminate the relationship.
He said when the complainant called Alibah on phone and informed him of her decision, he disagreed and insisted the relationship should continue.
According to Detective Inspector Atimbire, a few weeks later, the accused called the complainant and warned her to rescind her decision or face the consequences of seeing her nude pictures uploaded on Facebook.
He said on November 25 last year, Alibah called the complainant again and gave her 10 minutes to reconsider her decision.
When the accused did not hear any response from the complainant, he uploaded the naked pictures onto the complainants account on Facebook with the inscriptions; “Porn Star, pay and fu*k. Call me on phone number.”
Detective Inspector Atimbire further stated that few minutes later, the complainants friends started calling her concerning the pictures.
He said when the complainant herself went on Facebook and saw her naked pictures, she became offended and reported the case to the police where the accused was arrested and in his caution statement admitted the offence.
He is expected to return to court on February 18, for sentencing.
Source: GhanaWeb
