Farmer sentenced to 20 years for defilement

Tepa, (Ash), Aug. 12, GNA - Jacob Mensah, a 28-year-old farmer and chainsaw operator with three wives was on Monday sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment in hard labour by a Tepa circuit court for defiling a 13 year old primary six girl.

Though Mensah pleaded guilty to the charge, he told the court that he thought the victim was matured enough for sex.

Sentencing the accused, the Judge, Mr Richard Kiya Hinidza, said he was giving him a severe punishment to serve as a deterrent to others in view of the rampant defilement cases in the district.

Police Inspector Prosper Yao Aheto told the court that on June 28, this year, the victim left Amakom village to attend school at Mmeredane, a few kilometres away but did not return until the next morning at about 6.45 a.m.

Inspector Aheto said the girl arrived at the village with bloodstains on her and told her anxious father that the accused forcibly had sex with her three times.

The court heard that Mensah sent the girl to buy her a mosquito coil and on her return, he locked her in his room, gagged her with a rag to prevent her from screaming and forcibly had sex with her three times before releasing her the next day after giving her 30,000 cedis and warning her not to tell anybody about her ordeal.

Inspector Aheto said the girl's father, who could not stand the bloodstains on his daughter, rushed her to the Tepa Government hospital where a medical report on her showed lacerations on her vaginal wall with bleeding and a broken hymen. The father later lodged a report with the police and Mensah was arrested, the court heard. 12 Aug. 03