Rex V. Sala & Anor (1938)

LawGlobal Hub Judgment Report – West African Court of Appeal

Murder contra. sec. 319 of Criminal Code where corpus delicti not discovered there wawa be strong circumstantial evidence of death.

Held : Such evidence existing the appeals are dismissed. There is no need to set out the facts.

C. N. S. Pollard for Crown.

Appellants not present.

The following joint judgment was delivered : —

KINGDON, C.J., NIGERIA, BUTLER LLOYD AND CAREY, JJ.

In this case the only difficulty is that there is no direct evidence of anybody having seen the dead body of the person alleged to have been murdered. In such cases the circumstantial evidence leading to the conclusion that the alleged deceased is dead has to be examined with great care. In this case we are satisfied that the circumstantial evidence that the child Hardo is dead is so strong as to justify the finding, even though no witness testified to actually seeing the body.

The appeals are accordingly dismissed.