An Agona Swedru District Magistrate Court has slapped a 1,000 cedi fine on a man who manhandled another woman and stripped her naked in public.
Maxwell Adzeame, 29, who operates an internet café has also been instructed by his Worship Isaac Apeatu, to compensate the victim whose name has been withheld.
The Magistrate cautioned Ghanaian men to stop stripping women naked and humiliating them at the least provocation.
The convict, also known nocturnal Maxwell, was accused of pouncing on the complainant at her shop, held her by the throat, manhandled her and stripped her naked in the full glare of her workers.
Maxwell did this after he had been asked to stop sending the complainant’s workers on errands without her permission. Incensed by the instruction, the accused confronted the complainant and started a fight with her.
In his judgement, His Worship Apeatu indicated that the misunderstanding which arose between the complainant and the accused needed not have resulted in the latter stripping the former naked.
From the evidence given, he said, the actions of the accused were ‘calculated and intentional’ and that Maxwell “carried out his actions with precision to arrive at the desired outcome”.
“He [the accused] was only interested in provoking the complainant into a fight so that he could beat her and do something worse to humiliate her.
“When on both two attempts he was not successful in provoking her, he came the third time and that time, he succeeded,” the judge intimated.
He added that “it is becoming too many these days to hear men strip women naked and snap their nakedness on their phone for public display”.
“[While] I do not think the accused intended to expose her and video her the way others have been doing”, he continued, “…the very thought of squeezing her neck to provoke her into a fight in order to raise her dress to expose her was in every way intended.”
His Worship Apeatu held that the accused “intended to cause harm, pain, fear, annoyance and humiliation” by the manner in which he treated the complainant and therefore found him guilty of assault.
