Robbery and rape: Need for stiffer punishment?

A new phenomenon of crime is emerging where robbers rob and rape their female victims.

Until recently, robbers who attacked their victims either in a group or alone were known to loot the houses or the premises of their victims in haste and escape in a matter of minutes.

But the police are now recording cases where the robbers take their time to ransack the rooms of their victims and rape female occupants of the house.

On Thursday, February 19, 2015, a 28-year-old man, Bernard Kofi Owusu Acheampong, was arrested for allegedly attacking a medical officer in his house and raping his 41-year-old wife.

Police investigations established that the suspect attacked the family at about 1 a.m. and used about an hour and a half to loot and rape the wife of the medical officer. 

He was arrested about two hours after the incident at about 4:30 a.m. with the aid of a tracking device on one of the stolen mobile phones.

The Accra Circuit Court on Mond