Security guard jailed 15 years for defilement

A 62-year-old security guard stationed at the residence of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Education (UEW), Winneba, has been jailed 15 years for defiling a 12-year-old  pupil.

The convict, Abdul Rashid Sowah, who usually sends the victim (name withheld) to buy certain items for him, took advantage of the cordial relationship between him and the victim and lured her into the room that served as the security post and forcibly had sexual intercourse with her.

He was convicted on his own plea of guilty by the Agona Swedru Circuit Court, presided over by Mrs Abigail Animah Asare.

Prosecuting, Chief Inspector Ivy Agadia told the court that the victim lived with her mother, the complainant, at Ansaful, Winneba, while the accused, a security man at UEW, lived at Ntakorfan Low Cost at Winneba.

She said the accused normally sent the victim on errands anytime he was on duty at the Ansaful residency of the UEW Vice Chancellor and that during the month of June, while he was on duty at the residence, he came across the victim who had been sent by her mother to buy rice from town.

According to her, Rashid lured the victim into a garage used as the UEW security men’s office and had sexual intercourse with her thrice.

The accused, after the act, gave the victim GH5 as a gift and threatened her not to inform her mother else he would kill her.

She added that on July 12, 2014, at about 2am, the victim’s mother woke up early and detected that her daughter was unwell. 

The victim subsequently narrated her ordeal to her mother and on July 15, 2014, a formal complaint was lodged with the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service at Winneba.

The accused was later arrested and after police investigations, he was charged and arraigned before court.