High Court Hands Life Sentence To Footballer In Shocking Abesim Child Murders

The High Court in Accra has sentenced Richard Appiah, the footballer and draughtsman convicted of murdering two children in Abesim in the Bono Region, to life imprisonment.

The sentence followed a unanimous verdict by a seven-member jury, which found him guilty on two counts of murder. The victims were aged 12 and 15 at the time of the crime in 2021.

Appiah, who was 28 at the time of the offence, has been standing trial since 2024 before the court presided over by Justice Ruby Aryeetey, with committal proceedings having begun at the District Court in 2021.

In criminal law, the offence of murder requires the concurrence of both a guilty act and a guilty mind at the same time. The prosecution must prove the essential elements of the offence, including that the accused caused unlawful harm to the deceased, that the victim died as a result of that harm, and that the act was intentional.

Insanity Plea Rejected
Counsel for Appiah, Faustinus Yirilabuo, implored the jury to return a unanimous verdict of guilty but insane for his client.

While alluding that his client committed the act, he argued that Appiah did not understand or appreciate the nature and natural consequences of his actions at the time of the offence due to a mental disorder.

He cited instances where Appiah, prior to the murders, behaved strangely and suffered from schizophrenia. Counsel also referred to occasions where his client ate his own excreta and used his urine to wash his face.

Counsel further told the jury that his client, at the time the offence took place, was hallucinating and was being communicated to by a spirit which impressed on him (Appiah) to commit the crime or else he would die.

Prosecution Challenges Defence
However, the prosecution, led by Assistant State Attorney Nana Ama Adinkra, disagreed with the defence and argued that Appiah was lucid when he committed the offence and was therefore liable for his actions.

On the question of intent, Ms Adinkra said Appiah, knowing the consequences of his actions, threw away the intestines of the victims behind the house and hid evidence linking him to the crime.

“Why would he burn the clothes of someone he had killed if not to hide evidence?,” counsel asked the jury rhetorically.

She added that while Appiah’s father produced pictures of two boxes of medication for his condition, the court could not verify who prescribed the medication or for whom it was intended.

She further relied on expert testimony to argue that people suffering from schizophrenia were not violent in nature, adding that Appiah was not in an active psychotic episode at the time of the incident and therefore knew right from wrong.

She concluded by urging the jury to return a unanimous verdict of guilty.

Reactions and Next Steps
Reacting to the verdict, the father of the victims, Yeboah Asuamah, expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the trial. He thanked investigators and the Attorney General for their efforts in proving the guilt of Appiah.

However, lead counsel for the defence, Theophilus Dzimegah, disagreed with the jury’s decision. He told journalists that he would file a notice of appeal to challenge the ruling of the trial court.

Background
Richard Appiah murdered the two children, aged 12 and 15, in 2021.

Following reports to the police on August 20, 2021, officers discovered the body of one of the victims in a refrigerator, while other remains were found in separate rooms in Appiah’s residence.

Further investigations led police to a cocoa farm in Abesim, where they retrieved intestines believed to belong to one of the victims for forensic examination.

Two bloodstained machetes were also retrieved from the scene.

Source: Graphic

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