Driver's mate jailed for child stealing

Accra, June 27, GNA - A driver's mate aged 32 who was accused of kidnapping a 10-year-old girl and detained her for eight months was Monday sentenced to six months imprisonment by an Accra Circuit Court.

This was after the court had found Daniel Sosu guilty of child stealing.

Sosu was said to have changed the victim's name to Vida Sosu. According to the court Sosu did not report the matter to the Police when he found the victim loitering on the street.

The court said during the trial it was established that he took care of the victim and he did not cause physical harm to her. However the court noted that he denied the victim access to her parents.

When Sosu was asked what he had to say before sentence was passed, he pleaded with the court not give him a custodial sentence rather he should be made to sign a bond to be of good behaviour.

According to Sosu he was a first offender and was married with kids. Earlier on in Sosu's defence, he told the court that he found the victim loitering on the streets and the victim told him that she had been assaulted by her mother.

Sosu further stated that victim could not show him her house and that the victim told him (Sosu) that she did not have a father and that she would like him (Sosu) to be her father.

Based on what the victim said him, Sosu enrolled her in a school and asked his mother to take care of her.

The facts of the case, as narrated by Chief Inspector I.A.A. Ahor, are that the victim, who lived with the complainant at Old Fadama in Accra, left home on July 28, 2010 and did not return.

According to the prosecution, all efforts made, including radio announcements, to locate the victim proved futile.

On March 22, 2011, the complainant, who is the victim's father, received information that she had been traced to a house at Mataheko in Accra.

The complainant, who had lodged a complaint with the police, managed to locate the said house at Mataheko and, on getting there, he observed that his daughter was under the care of one Afia Ramzy.

The prosecution said the complainant enquired how she (Afia) had come across the victim, to which Afia responded that Sosu was the victim's father.

The police eventually effected Sosu's arrest and, upon interrogation, he claimed he had met the victim at Abossey Okai in August 2010 and took her home.

Sosu also informed the police that he had renamed the victim, whose real name is being withheld, Vida Sosu.