According to the court, presided over Justice Kofi Dogu, the trial judge at the juvenile court erred in demanding a social enquiry report only after sentencing the accused, although it is required by law to do so before sentencing.

The ruling follows an appeal by the lawyers of the boy,  who argued that the sentence handed to him was too harsh.

They also claimed that the trial judge lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter.

The High Court held that there had been a miscarriage of justice because the Juvenile Court delivered a verdict without a social enquiry report.

He was found guilty of manslaughter by the Accra Juvenile court in September 2017, during proceedings that were heard in-camera.

Being 16-years-old at the time of the incident on January 4, 2017, he was tried by a Juvenile Court.

The boy, who resides at Community Eight in Tema, is said to have gone for his father’s gun, which was under a bed with the intention of firing shots into the air.

He however ended up killing his friend, Lily Donkor, a third-year student of the same school.

The boy told police that his intent was to fire the gun into the air, a claim corroborated by the police, adding however that the weight of the gun changed the course of the bullet, which hit the deceased.

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By: Fred Djabanor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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