Supreme Court of Mauritius, 30 janvier 2020, 2020 LPW 8 – Police v Marie Therese Raujib

Police v Marie Therese Raujib

2020 LPW 8

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF LOWER PLAINES WILHEMS

Cause Number 5829/19

In the matter of:

Police

v/s

Marie Therese Raujib

JUDGMENT

The Accused stands charged with the offence of INSULT in breach of section 296 (b) of the Criminal Code Act. She pleaded not guilty to the charge and stood inops consilii at trial stage. The Court proceedings were conducted in Creole language for the benefit of the Accused party.

THE CASE FOR THE PROSECUTION

Prosecution Witness No.1, CPL Sookaram explained that he met the Accused on 10 th January 2019 at 07 00 hours at Chebel and recorded her defence statement after having informed her of the charge against her, after having duly cautioned her and informed her of her Constitutional Rights. He identified, read and produced same and the defence statement of Accused was marked as Doc A on record. The Accused elected not to cross examine the formal witness of the prosecution.

Prosecution Witness No.2, Mr Louis Max José Abraham explained that on 28 th

October 2018 at around 12 15 hours he was in outside and was seeing off his son who was leaving when he heard someone shouting the following words from behind

“ki to taper mauvais pilon. To pena femme. Al brainer, mauvais pilon, crever, creve ene fois.”

The main prosecution witness went on to state that he clearly saw his neighbour whom he identified as being the Accused in Court as being the person who had

insulted him. In cross examination the Declarant stated that the Accused usually insults him and stated that on that day the Accused party was shouting and he confirmed that he was not on good terms with her. The case was then closed for the prosecution.

THE CASE FOR THE DEFENCE

The Accused was explained her Constitutional Rights and from the dock she denied the charge levelled against her. She went on to explain that Declarant harasses her and her family and disturbs then by knocking on the wall. The case was then closed for the defence.

I have assessed the evidence on record. I note that in the present case that it is not in dispute that there is bad blood between both the Declarant and the Accused. I have further considered the fact that no independent witness was called by the Prosecution to corroborate the version of the Declarant in Court. I note that the Complainant deposed in a hesitant and uncertain manner and read verbatim from a piece of paper he held in his hands while narrating his version in court and quoting the alleged insulting words directed towards his person by the Accused on that day in question. The main prosecution witness did not impress me with his deposition in Court and he failed to stand the test of cross examination.

I find it apt at this stage to refer to the case of DPP vs Subrattee [2010 SCJ 207] in which the Court of Appeal made the following observations:

“In general, however, at common law one credible witness is sufficient (vide DPP v Hester [1973 A.C 296], Lord Diplock at p 324). With the development of the common law, the corroboration requirement is said to be required in such categories of cases which include the evidence of a complainant in sexual cases, the evidence of an accomplice when called by the prosecution and the evidence of children. Apart from these established categories, the authorities have established the need for a corroboration warning where the evidence of a witness is suspect and which would include the evidence of a co-accused, the evidence of mental patients and the evidence of witnesses who may have improper motives or interests of their own to serve (Beck [1982 1 WLR 461]; Spencer [1987 AC 128] and Brown [1992 Crim LR 178])”.

Since I have found that I cannot rely upon the testimony of the Complainant, I find that the prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt against the Accused. I therefore grant her the benefit of the doubt and dismiss the present case against her.

B. PRAYAG-RAJCOOMAR (Mrs) District Magistrate This 30 th January 2020