The Criminal Division of the Accra High court has ordered the release of the Achimota student who shot and killed his girlfriend last year.

According to the presiding judge, Justice Kofi Dorgu, the trial of the accused exceeded the six months period as stipulated in the Juvenile Act.

The court has therefore ordered that the judgment by the Juvenile court be quashed and the accused discharged.

Background

The 17-year-old convict was found guilty for manslaughter by the Accra Juvenile court for shooting and killing a female colleague.

He was sixteen years [minor] at the time of the incident on January 4, 2017 and so the case was heard in camera.

He is said to have gone for his father’s gun which was under a bed with the intent of shooting in the air but ended up killing his friend, Lily Donkor, who was also a third-year student of the same school.

The facts as narrated in court were that on January 4 last year at about 2pm the deceased Lily who lived at Cantonments visited the convict at Community eight in Tema.

While there, prosecution said the convict went to his father’s room and picked up his father’s single barrel gun and shot the victim in the abdomen.

The convict told the police that he intended shooting into the air however the gravity of the gun changed course and hit the deceased.

According to the prosecution, a neighbour heard the gunshot and went to the scene only to see the victim lying in a pool of blood.

The victim was taken to the Port Clinic in Tema. However, due to the condition of the victim, she was transferred to the 37 Military Hospital in Accra where she died on admission.