Defiled by her father at 12, raped by a police officer: The story of a 36-year-old prostitute

She had sex with pastors and businessmen to earn a living but that was after her biological father defiled her under the guise of ‘letting her know how it feels so she’s not surprised when any man does it to her’.

For nine years, Adwoa [not her real name] has been a prostitute and despite her desire to stop, she’s being ‘tempted’ by rich men as they approach her at a time she is encountering financial difficulties.

Narrating her ordeal on Vision1 FM, Adwoa said the father inserted his finger in her vagina at a tender age after attempting to have sex with her. They couldn’t have sex because she felt pains despite applying cream on the manhood of her father.

“My father stripped me naked and asked me to hold his penis. There was a cream on the table so he told me to apply on his penis. He then asked me to sit on it. It hurt so he fingered me,” she said.

One day, the father, having realized that the son was not around, had sex with her. She bled profusely afterwards and felt ashamed.

“I had goose bumps all over. I was shy and cold. He gave me paracetamol because I was shivering,” she said.

Adwoa later met her mother and narrated the incident to her. The mother, saddened by the news, shed tears as she was shocked at the development. Confronted about why he committed such an ‘evil’ act, the father, according to the victim said he wanted to be the one to teach her how ‘it is done’.

The highly infuriated mother wanted to report the matter to the police but several pleas from family members made her rescind her decision.

She was later taken to the village for cleansing and left under the care of a female pastor. Due to the level of maltreatment, she complained to her mother and was sent to live with her mother’s friend from church. The predicament continued as she became a victim to the son of the lady she had gone to stay with. The said young man who had just returned from the States slept with her every night. She could not utter a word to anyone as the young man warned he would deal with her should she make any attempt to report the matter. According to her, she was fifteen then.

She consequently run away; relocated to her grandmother’s end and later went to stay at Dansoman. During one of her visits to the beach, she encountered a Nigerian fraudster who showed interest in her. She introduced him to the father who then gave him a list containing the items needed for her wedding.

Her mother later showed up and insisted she was too young to marry but that was too late. She was already pregnant for the Nigerian. Unfortunately, he was wanted by the BNI at a point, so he run away leaving behind GH¢4,500 which she deposited at the bank. Due to stigmatization, she left the area and rented an apartment at a different location.

She invested the money in a block factory belonging to her husband but was later told market has not been booming. The owner of the land seized the machine on the grounds claiming she owed him. This was after she gave birth.



Adwoa met another man who got her pregnant and never returned from his journey to Obuasi. She had to vacate the house for an uncompleted building because her rent was due. With two children, life became unbearable and landed her into prostitution.

She recalled a pastor, Paul, told her she was into prostitution due to hardship and knowing that for a fact, she believed him. Paul impregnated her; he wanted to marry her, but an usher objected saying she has catered for him for years and will not allow a stranger take what is rightfully hers. They moved to Awoshie where Paul had a piece of land with an uncompleted building.

“The whole area was bushy; there were snakes but I made sure I cleaned the place up. The building was up to the window level so I got some sacks and used them for shade. Gradually, we were able to complete one of the rooms,” said Adwoa.

Paul later healed a chief of a certain town and was given a piece of land on which he built a church. Day in day out, the numbers of the congregation increased. He performed miracles; there were so many testimonies. But it appeared he was so much into activities of the church; he hardly went home.

Few months later, Paul told her he had impregnated a member of his church and had to marry her else, the church would collapse but she objected.

Despite her objection, Paul went ahead and married the said church member. Unhappy with the incident, she beat ‘the hell’ out of the pregnant wife. The lady then reported the case to the police and she was arrested and kept in police custody. She nearly went mad upon her release.

“I realized the world is not fair. I went to where those prostitutes are. During the CAN 2008, I got a customer and I was given GH¢20. When we were done, I was arrested and beaten by the police for engaging in prostitution. One of the policemen asked if I had a condom and I said ‘Yes’. He demanded for it; I gave him. Right inside the car, he had sex with me,” she recounted.

Another asked her to hand over her phone and she was later released. That however, did not deter her as she worked on the very night and made GH¢100.

Having saved enough money, she decided to get a shop and start a saloon. This was three years after Paul left her. From nowhere, Paul showed up saying she had to leave the house because his wife needed a place to stay. One way or the other, she was able to get through to the brother of the Nigerian she had a child with who was then living in Togo and sent the child there.

She went to Benin and Togo to continue with the sex trade. After several years, she decided to put a stop to it, a decision which rendered her poor. In the midst of the hardship, her 15-year-old daughter was impregnated by an unknown man who gave her medicine in an attempt to abort the child.

Adwoa says she thinks of where her soul would be when she dies or when the trumpet blows, a reason she wants to quit prostitution.