Bakary Dibba, a supervisor at the Serious Crime Unit of the Gambia Police Force on Wednesday testified in the ongoing manslaughter and exposing a child to danger trial involving Sainabou Mbye, Cherno Mbye and KibiliDambelly 1st, 2nd, and 3rd accused persons before Justice Ebrima Jaiteh of the High Court in Banjul,
.
In his testimony, Dibba said that as a crime scene investigator, a person is obliged to be at a crime scene, so that one can study the scene properly and gather evidence that is relevant to cases.
He told the court that he recognised the accused persons, as he had interacted with them: “The accused persons were directly under the investigation of my office, and as such, being the supervisor, I interacted with them,” he adduced.
Dibba recalled that on the 20th of April 2022, a case file was received from Bundung Serious Crime Unit involving the three accused persons, but at the time of receiving the file, it was only ChernoMbye and KibiliDambelly.
He stated that according to the accusation it involved one baby (name withheld), revealing that as investigation, they e sat them down and interacted with the accused persons, and they gave us the explanation of the circumstances surrounding the death of the baby.
He also told the court as part of best practises, a team was dispatched from his office headed by himself together with 4 or 5 other officers.
Upon arrival at the scene and from the information received from 1st and 2nd, SainabouMbye (3rd accused) was out of jurisdiction and she was in Dakar, Senegal.
Dibba told the that at the crime scene in Brusubi, 2nd accused showed him where the vehicle was parked.
“We conducted a thorough examination of the scene and 2nd accused person told us that on the day of the incident, he was the driver of the vehicle.
Cherno Mbye (2nd accused) gave him the names of the passengers of the vehicle, which were that of himself, the 2nd and KibiliDambelly (3rd accused), the said subject of the case and other 2 children, adding 2nd accused showed him the direction of the truck that carried their luggage from their old apartment to the new apartment; and 3rd accused also showed him a stone by the gate of theirs,” he said.
He said having received a guide from the 2nd and 3rd accused persons, they embarked on a measurement. They measured from the front tyre of the vehicle to the compound gate, and equally from the rare tyre to the compound gate, plus the stone.
He added having gotten all these measurements from the vehicle to the compound, he now took the sketch plan for the crime scene, where the vehicle was parked and all other fixed objects with the correct measurements.
At this juncture, the witness was handed the document of the sketch plan by State Counsel Jobarteh, which he identified as the one being referred, noting he recognised it by his handwriting and the vehicle number and compound label he had written on the document.
He added in their further investigation, statements were obtained from the accused persons.
“They were charged accordingly and a file was forwarded to the prosecution for prosecuting,” he said, noting, however, that the 1st accused was still out of the jurisdiction.