Court orders Deeba to seek counsel from lawyer

The Osu District Magistrate Court on Thursday urged Deeba Acheampong, a musician facing extradition to the United Kingdom over alleged defilement and assault of his two step daughters, to get into constant touch with his counsel.

This is to enable him to know that his lawyer Augustines Obuor would be in court or not any time the matter was listed for hearing.

The court presided over by Aboagye Tandoh noted that the more issues were delayed, the more his liberties are curtailed.

The court gave the advice when his lawyer did not turn up in court and the case had to be adjourned although prosecution led by Mrs Yvonne A. Obuobisa, Principal State Attorney, was in court.

Prosecution had told the court that defence counsel had indicated that he was held up at the High Court and that he would not be present.

The court therefore adjourned to March 25.

At the last sitting, Detective Lance Corporal Ali G. Briamah, the investigator, had ended his evidence and he was to be cross-examined by Mr Obuor. Deeba is facing five counts of defilement and assault under Ghana’s laws, raping a female under the age of 13 and assaulting a minor under the United Kingdom’s laws.

Although the charges and the facts have been read out to Deeba in court, his plea has been reserved.

In December 2012, INTERPOL Accra received a request of arrest warrant from its counterpart in London to the effect that between 2004 and 2008, while living in the UK, the accused person had a relationship with a woman who already had two daughters, aged eight and six, from her previous relationship.

Subsequently, Deeba and the woman had two children from their union. Initially, they lived separately but when the woman went on night shift Deeba took care of the home and cared for the children.

That, the prosecutor said, continued until September 2008 when Deeba returned to Ghana to pursue his musical career.

But two weeks after his departure from the UK, Deeba’s step-daughter told her mother that her step-father had sexual intercourse with her on several occasions whenever her mother went to work in the night.

According to the prosecutor, on those occasions, Deeba invited the little girl into the bedroom to watch pornographic films with him, after which he would lay her on the bed, kiss her mouth, apply baby oil on his penis and have sex with her.