A British
photographer on vacation in Ghana has been charged with
sodomy after being found with photos showing him
having sex with another man, police officials said
Tuesday.
Sixty-three-year
old John Ross Macleod was arrested Saturday at Ghana's
airport in Accra, the nation's capital, after police who
were searching him for drugs turned up a compact disc
with pictures of Macleod having sex with another man,
said Charles Darkwa, a police spokesman.
Homosexual acts
and sodomy have long been illegal in the West African
country, though prosecution is not common.
Macleod and the
Ghanaian man in the pictures, 19-year-old Emmanuel Adda,
pleaded guilty Monday to ''unnatural carnal knowledge.''
Macleod pleaded not guilty to a separate charge with
possessing obscene pictures, Darkwa said.
Macleod first met
Adda, a recent high school graduate, through the
Internet, and they had exchanged a number of e-mails before
the photographer arrived in Ghana in early October to
visit Adda, Darkwa said.
''During his stay
in Ghana, Adda traveled round the country with Macleod,
who took the opportunity to sodomize him and took pictures
as well,'' Darkwa said.
Neither of the
men nor their lawyers were immediately available to
comment.
Court officials
said this was the first sodomy case in Accra's courts
this year, but said they did not have records on the last
time such charges were brought.
Homosexuality is
illegal in many African countries, including Kenya,
Senegal, Nigeria, Uganda, Mauritania and Sudan. South Africa
prompted continent-wide controversy last year when it
became the first African country to legalize same-sex
marriage. (Francis Kokutse, AP)
