Court stops raped girl’s burial

The Abeka Magistrate Court in Accra has stopped the burial of a 12-year-old girl and ordered a fresh post-mortem to be conducted on the deceased to ascertain the real cause of death.

The court directed that the exercise should be done at the Police Hospital in Accra to nullify a previous autopsy report from the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

The deceased was set to be buried next Saturday but the family had been compelled to reconsider their decision following an order from Emmanuel Nana Antwi-Barima, the Magistrate at the Abeka Court, that another post-mortem examination should be carried out.

The fact of the case is that, Beatrice Quansah, a 12-year-old girl, now deceased, was raped on May 5, 2013, at Agape Down, a suburb of Accra by one Kwame Adjetey, a barber.

According to the girl’s father, who reported the case to the Anyah Police in Accra, his daughter complained of abdominal pains and when she was asked of the cause she said she had been defiled by the barber.

The victim told her father that the suspect warned her not to inform anyone, but upon persistent queries she accompanied the father to the barbering shop and identified the man who had defiled her.

With assistance from three friends, the father of the victim arrested the suspect and took him to the Anyah Police Station.

After filing a report with the police, on the same day, the victim unfortunately died at about 10:30pm, while she was being conveyed to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for treatment.

She was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

Later, the post-mortem report did not state that she was defiled while the police only stated in their report that the suspect was being charged for murder.

The magistrate, who had earlier remanded the suspect in police custody, later suspected foul play after listening to the prosecuting officer and reading the facts of the case.

A visibly furious magistrate said “the court prudently negates the medical report devoid of the defilement charge since the accused was never charged on the criminal defilement before instituting murder charge against the accused.”

He ordered that “all previous pathological research made on the corpse of Beatrice Quansah ” be set aside.

“Court orders that the appropriate mechanism be enhanced through the periods the deceased was defiled by the accused and before May 4, 2013 when she complained to her parents of being defiled by the accused person.”

Before adjourning, the court ordered the accused to reappear on June 28, 2013, while directing that the corpse of the deceased was to be sent to the Police Hospital in Accra for a fresh post mortem examination “for the basic truth to be unearthed.”