Sexual assault of 4-year-old in Tema - Parents report officers to police top brass

The parents of a four-year-old girl allegedly sexually assaulted by a foreigner in February this year have petitioned the Director-General of the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards Bureau (PIPS) over alleged misconduct and unprofessional work ethic of some police officers at the Tema Community Two Police Station.

In their petition, the parents alleged that the police failed to confiscate the passport of the suspect, Huang Yanzong, a Chinese, in order to restrict his movement, and thereby allowed him to jump bail and flee the country.

The family indicated that the police also failed to do due diligence as to the contact address of the person who stood surety for the accused.

They, therefore, appealed to the authorities to investigate the conduct of the officers handling the case to ensure that justice was served in the matter.

“We also want the three officers sanctioned per the rules of the Ghana Police Service for being so heartless and acting contrary to the tenets of the motto: ‘Service with Integrity’. Their integrity seems to have been relegated to the background so far as our case is concerned,” they said in the petition.

They said they trusted the PIPS to assist them to resolve the issue by arresting the suspect to stand trial and help their daughter psychologically recover from the incident.

“We are also making it clear to the police that we have all the time and are ever ready to pursue this case to its logical conclusion,” they noted.

Background

On February 3, 2020, the Daily Graphic reported a case in which a Chinese accused of sexually assaulting a four-year-old had fled the country after jumping bail.

Huang Yanzong was charged with indecent exposure after he allegedly held the hands of the girl to touch his penis.

The incident was said to have happened in Tema on December 23, 2019.

Yanzong, who was on a police enquiry bail, failed to appear at the Tema Circuit Court when the case was called on January 28, 2020.
It later emerged in court that he had fled the country.

The suspect had failed to appear in court when the case was first called on January 21, 2020, with the excuse that he was sick.

Petition

In the petition, the parents of the kindergarten pupil alleged that the said police officers — then under the command of Chief Superintendent Daniel Ohene Djan — failed in their efforts to persuade the parents to drop the case against the Chinese, and went ahead to release him on police enquiry bail without putting measures in place to compel the suspect to appear in court.

They said the police officers on countless times failed to produce the accused in court (Tema Circuit Court A).

“They have failed to arrest the accused person after the court had issued a bench warrant against the accused person. They have also failed to effect the bond on the surety,” they said.

The parents said they came to understand the theatrics on the part of the police as meant to discourage and frustrate them to drop the case against Huang Yanzong, alleging that the police were very liberal with bail conditions that were not stringent enough.

“We the parents even have a funny feeling that the suspect is hiding somewhere within the country because by February this year, the reported Covid-19 cases were rising in China, and logically this man would not want to travel to China during that period,” the petition said.

No comment

Efforts to get officers at the Tema Community Two Police Station to comment were unsuccessful as they preferred not to comment pending the outcome of the petition.

Writer’s email: benjamin.glover@graphic.com.gh