Electrician gets 15 years for defilement

The Asante Bekwai Circuit Court has sentenced an electrician apprentice to 15 years imprisonment in hard labour for defiling a 15 year old girl.

Emmanuel Abeka, 21, who pleaded guilty to defilement but denied abducting the girl, was also jailed 24 months for escaping from lawful custody.

He was convicted on defilement but his sentence was deferred, only for him to escape from lawful custody but was later re-arrested.

Prosecuting, Detective Chief Inspector Stephen Ofori, told the Court presided over by Mr Mark Timarah Diboro, that the complainants were the parents of the victim, a junior high school student.

He said the girl lives with the parents at Asante-Bekwai, and on February 19, 2021, at about 0730 hours, the victim went to school but did not return home.

The prosecution said the next day at about 0530 hours, the complainants were informed that the victim was seen with Abeka at Atwima-Techima in Kumasi.

He said whilst the complainants were frantically searching for the victim, Abeka got wind of it that complainants were furious so he kept the victim in the house of a witness in the case.

The prosecution said an official report was made to Senfi Police leading to the arrest of Abeka, where a Police medical report form was issued to the complainant to send the victim to hospital for examination, He said the victim was treated and discharged at the Bekwai Government Hospital.

Chief Inspector Ofori said the medical officer's report indicated that there were abrasions on the vagina wall of the victim.

He said Abeka in his cautioned statement said that the victim had been his girlfriend for the past two months, and admitted having sex with her twice.

The prosecution said Abeka also told the police that he and the victim had made a verbal covenant by swearing to the Antoa Nyamaa's shrine to the effect that whoever abandons the relationship shall die.

He said Abeka told the Police that on February 19, 2021, he, the victim and a witness in the case, went to a certain priest at Pakyi No. 2 to reverse the covenant but it failed. The prosecution said after Police investigations, Abeka was charged and put before court.