Headnote
The appellant was convicted of defilement on the evidence of the complainant, a girl who gave her age as 13; no voire dire was conducted.
Held: 15
(i) The first decision to be made is whether the proposing witness is a child of tender years; if he is not then s. 122 (1) of the Juveniles Act, Cap. 217, does not apply and the witness's evidence cannot be received save on oath.
(ii) It 20 would be more satisfactory if the legislature were to lay down a specific age below which the provisions of s. 122 (1) were to be applied; in the absence of such legislation the decision must be made by the court in each case.
(iii) The record being silent on the point and the witness having 25 been duly sworn, it must be assumed, on the basis of the standard presumption that procedural matters of this kind have been correctly carried out, that the child was not a child of tender years.
