An Accra High Court presided over by Justice Merlyn Wood has affirmed a ruling by a Circuit Court, which sentenced a beautician, Chantel Nunekpeku to 12 months imprisonment in hard labour.

This judgement was delivered on November 2 against the beautician’s plea that the decision by the Circuit Court was too harsh, therefore, it ought to be reviewed.

Chantel was incarcerated in 2018 for uploading onto social media nude photos of one Destina Tata, which she altered out of jealousy.

In the appeal, Ms Nunekpeku urged the court to be considerate to her age, 27 at the time of the sentence, as she was young and a first time offender.

Thus, out of jealousy, she photo-shopped the head of Tata, complainant and a one-time girlfriend of Chantel’s boyfriend, on another person’s naked photograph, to create an erroneous impression of the latter    

According to her, the high court should review the lower court’s ruling also that the charges, leading to her oubliette were misdemeanour offences.

 However, the sitting judge clashed these reasons, saying the convict was not young, but an adult who acted with a preconceived mind.

This judgement was given in the absence of Chantel who had since the hearing of the appeal failed to make a physical appearance before the court, although she was ordered through her counsel that she come to court in person.

Chantel’s grounds of disrespecting the court order was that she has travelled out of the jurisdiction and return had been challenged by the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Background:

 Chantel was jailed by an Accra Circuit Court presided over by Mrs Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku for photo-shopping the head of Destina Tata onto a naked photograph of another person and distributing the same on social media.

Thus, Chantel admitted sending the photo-shopped nude pictures of the complainant to social media, adding that she did that out of jealousy.

The court was told that on January 23, 2018, that Chantel downloaded pictures of the complainant from social media and photo-shopped them with somebody’s nude pictures and created the impression that the pictures were that of the complainant.

 According to the prosecutor, the doctored photo, which went viral, caused the complainant emotional and psychological trauma, thereby undermining her integrity, privacy, dignity, and worth as a human being.

The beautician, together with her boyfriend, Kayode Kalode, a music producer, was arraigned before the court on offences relating to obscenity, domestic violence, and emotional and psychological trauma.

 While Kayode Kalode maintained that he was not guilty of the charges, Chantel changed her plea from not guilty to guilty.

Soon after Chantel changed her plea, the court handed down the sentence while Kayode Kalode was granted bail to the tune of GH¢10,000.00.

By Akutu Dede Adimer