Henry Alibah, the 21-year-old student who posted nud* pictures of his former girlfriend on Facebook, has been jailed for six months by an Accra Circuit Court, presided over by Judge Ellen Vivian Amoah.
He told the court that his 21-year-old client was really sorry and that he had learnt his lesson.
Lawyer Cobbinah stated, “The issue of custodial sentence should not be the preferred choice. The law does not constrain you from giving a human face to the law.”
Sentencing
In spite of the passionate appeal made on his behalf by his lawyer, Gad Cobbinah, for the judge to temper justice with mercy, he was sentenced to six months’ jail term.
Judge Amoah had indicated that there was an element of premeditation in the case involving Alibah because he had engaged in what is termed as ‘cyber bullying or revenge pornography.’
She added that crimes of those nature caused psychological damage to the victims.
Ms Amoah also said the emergence of social media platforms had offered the opportunity to inflict emotional and psychological pain on people – most of the affected victims being women and girls.
“With over 1.11 billion users of Facebook, such acts could easily pop through the click of the button of the mouse,” she said.
The Facts
Prosecuting, Detective Inspector Kofi Atimbire said that both the complainant and the accused are students and that the complainant was a fiancée to the accused for two years, but about three three months ago, she 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 consequence 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 complainant’s account on Facebook with the inscription: “Porn star, pay and f**k. Call me on phone number…”
Detective Inspector Atimbire further stated that a few minutes later, the complainant’s friends started calling her concerning the picture.
He said when the complainant herself went on Facebook and saw her naked pictures, she became offended and reported the case to the police and the accused was arrested and charged with the offence, which he admitted in his caution statement.
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