The Circuit Court in Accra, presided over by He Honour Christiana Cann, has issued a stern warning to lawyers of actress Rosemond Brown over the manner are going about the case.
In court on Friday, when the case was called, the lawyer of the accused person wrote to the court to ask for the case to be adjourned to May 4 for the Case Management Conference (CMC) to be held.
The purpose of the CMC is to identify the essential issues in the litigation and to avoid unnecessary, burdensome or duplicative discovery and other pretrial procedures in the course of preparing for trial of those issues.
But the court said the date was too long and rather adjourned the case to April 6.
The sitting judge said: “We are not joking here so tell your lawyer” to express her dissatisfaction about the situation and asked the accused to inform her lawyer about it.
The actress, popularly known as Akuapem Poloo, has been charged with the publication of nude pictures with her seven-year-old son.
Akuapem Poloo was present in court when the case was called but her lawyer was absent.
Charges
The outspoken actress is facing three charges of publication of obscene materials, engaging in domestic violence, a conduct that in any way undermines another person’s privacy or integrity and engaging in domestic violence namely conduct that in any way detracts or is likely to detract from another person’s dignity and worth as a human being.
The actress has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Brief facts
Brief facts of the case presented to the court by the prosecution, led by Chief Inspector Agartha Asantewaa, were that the complainant is Bright K. Appiah, the Director of Child Rights International Ghana.
According to the prosecution, on June 30, 2020, the accused person celebrated her son’s seventh birthday and she took her nude pictures together with her son who was also half-naked and posted the same on her Instagram page which went viral on social media.
She told the court that, the pictures attracted comments, adding that the behaviour of the accused person was likely to detract from the dignity of her seven-year-old son among others.
Chief Inspector Agartha told the court that the complainant petitioned the Director-General Criminal Investigations Directorate and the matter was referred to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit.
Akuapem Poloo, she said, was arrested and in her caution statement, admitted posting the nude picture with her son unintentionally.
But, the prosecution held that she deliberately posted the nude picture together with her son.