Trial Judge Erred — Counsel

Counsel for Thomas Alan Tichler, the 57-year-old British national who was jailed four years by an Accra circuit court for indecent sexual assault of a three- year-old girl, yesterday prayed the Accra High Court that Tichler's conviction was unreasonable and could not be supported with the evidence adduced.

According to Mr Tony Lithur, the counsel, the issue of opportunity was so crucial to the appellant's case that it ought to be considered by the court because the facts of the case indicated that he did not have any opportunity to commit the offence for which he was incarcerated.

Mr Lithur said this when making submissions in the appeal filed on behalf of the convict who had claimed and insisted that he was innocent and a victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Tichler came to Ghana on September 25, 2007 as a volunteer with the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) for a three-month consultancy for the Micro Finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) in the Office of the President.

In his grounds of appeal, counsel said the trial judge erred by substituting the victim's case for that of the prosecution and held that the convict committed the offence contemporaneously with the carrying of his victim on his shoulders.

He said the judge failed to draw proper inferences from the totality of the medical evidence adduced during the trial and that nobody was present during the time the appellant was in the house of the victim's parents.