Man gets 9yrs for defilment
The Accra Circuit Court has sentenced a 35-year-old man to nine years imprisonment with hard labour for defilement.
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The convict, Robert Neequaye Kotey, pleaded not guilty to the charge of defilement of a child under age 16, but was found guilty after a full trial before the court, presided over by Ms Sedinam Agbemava.
He was said to have lured the 13-year-old victim into his house, tore her dress and pant and forcibly had sexual intercourse with her.
The well-built fair and tall man who wore a faded jeans and green top looked remorseful and had his head bowed as the trial judge read his judgement.
In his verdict, the court took into consideration the charge statement, medical report, the documented evidence the victim gave and the proof presented by prosecution.
The trial judge said prosecution was able to prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt when it stated that the victim was under age.
She said the exhibit of the medical report indicated that there was a “tearing of the hymen and redness of the private part which the court accepted in evidence as a sign that the child has been assaulted”.
The evidence the victim gave by describing the convict as tall and fair when she led the police and the family to the convict’s house and pointed at Neequaye as the perpetrator, she said, was also accepted because the convict was not the only fair and tall guy in the house.
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She said, “I believe the victim when she said you defiled her because it was she who led the police and the family to the area and if you were not the one, why of all the men in La, did she point at you?”
Prosecution, Chief Inspector of Police, Mr Kofi Atimbire, told the court that the complainant was the uncle of the 13-year-old victim who lived in the same vicinity with the convict at La, a suburb of Accra.
He said on March 6, last year, at about 5pm, the victim was sent by her grandmother and she met the convict on her way home.
The convict, he said, lured her into his house where he forcibly had sex with her.
Prosecution said a search conducted by the victim’s family on her whereabouts in the vicinity proved futile.
The next morning at about 6am, Mr Atimbire said the convict let the victim out of his room and on her way, she met a relative who took her home.
He said the victim narrated her ordeal to the family and a complaint was made at the La police station.