Carpenter jailed for setting wife's room ablaze

A 46-year old Carpenter, who set ablaze the living room of a house his wife work in as a house-help at Aquarium, a suburb of Cape Coast was on Monday jailed 12 months imprisonment by a Cape Coast Magistrate’s Court.

The fire destroyed belongings valued at GH¢2,175.00.

Kweku Anning, remorsefully pleaded guilty to the charge of causing unlawful damage and prayed for leniency to enable him take care of his children and pay for the destroyed items.

His wife, Ms Mercy Quainoo, a 43 year-old house-help who is the complainant, ironically, broke down in tears and pleaded for mercy for her husband, but the Court presided over by Mrs Rita Amoaniwaa Edusa did not heed to their pleas.

Chief Inspector Christiana Sampong told the court that a misunderstanding erupted between the couple who have been living together for 11 years with four children at Assin Akropong, over an exchange of phone number.

The wife now resides in Cape Coast due to her work and so the convict visits them most of the time.

According to the Prosecutor, during one of Anning's visits two weeks ago at her workplace at Acquarium, one Wofa Yaw who stayed around went there to request for Ms Quainoo's mobile phone number while the family were having their meal and she obliged.

This did not go down well with Anning and during an ensuing quarrel, Ms Quainoo warned her husband never to get closer to her again and Anning returned to Assin Akropong.

However, on Friday, July 27, 2018, at about 2000hours, the convict went back to his wife's workplace with a voltic bottle full of petrol, forcibly opened the wooden window to the room where the landlady had given to his wife as an abode.

He then set the room ablaze and took to his heels but he run out of luck when Ms Quainoo spotted him and raised the alarm and one Nana Boateng Dokyi chased, arrested and handed him over to the police in Cape Coast.