Lotto writer accused of defilement denies having an erection the previous year

A 51-year-old lotto writer, Emmanuel Nii Darku, who has been accused of defiling a 13-year-old girl at Mataheko, has told the Accra Circuit Court that he has not had an erection last year.

While denying knowledge of having any sexual intercourse with the girl, he told the court that he is a BP patient and his manhood had not erected the previous year.

But the prosecution told the court that on the day of the arrest, used condoms were retrieved from the box beside Darku’s bed.

Darku, also a driver, who has been charged with defiling an underage girl contrary to section 101(2) of the Criminal Offence Act of Ghana as amended by Act 554/98, pleaded not guilty.

The court, presided over by Her Honour, Mrs Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku, has ordered that a medical test be conducted on him to ascertain whether his manhood was not functioning as he claimed.

He has been granted bail in the sum of GHc 40, 000 with four sureties and is to reappear in court on December 19 with the hospital report.

Brief facts

The facts of the case as were presented to the court by DSP Abadam Lora Cletus were that the complainant, Mr Emmanuel Badu, is a pastor working at Nkawkaw while the victim is his daughter and a pupil of Rev Thomas Clegg JHS at Kaneshie. She is living with her mother at Tweneboa Dansoman.

The accused person, Emmanuel Nii Darku, is a driver and a lotto writer and also a resident of Mataheko.

The prosecutor said Darku runs his lotto business at Tweneboa Dansoman and knew the girl and her siblings who live in the same vicinity, and started buying them ice-cream.

According to the prosecution, the girl and her friend started visiting Darku at his house at Mataheko to help him with cleaning his house.

DSP Cletus told the court that on September 21, 2017, Darku invited the girl to his house to collect a notebook and when the girl got to his room, Darku offered her a glass of water and after drinking the water, she became unconscious.

According to the prosecution, the girl she said woke up later and saw herself naked on top of Darku’s bed, with whitish particles around her private parts and started crying.

Darku, according to the prosecutor, pleaded with her not to disgrace him and gave her GHc 5.00 to buy the notebook.

The girl, upon reaching home, became afraid to tell her mother what had happened to her and kept it to herself till November, 2017 when she attended church service and during preaching she said she could no longer contain the ordeal and informed her parents.

Medical report

According to the prosecutor, the matter was reported to Dansoman Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit, where a medical form was issued to the parents for the girl to be sent to the Korle-Bu Polyclinic for examination.

Per the medical officer’s report from the polyclinic, the perineum and labia look normal while the hymen is perforated with uneven edges and the effect is that the hymen was “non intact,” meaning the girl had experienced penetration.

Darku was later arrested and in his statement stated that he knew the girl very well and had been buying ice-cream for her and her siblings.

He added that the girl and her friend, whose name he could not mention, came and cleaned his room for him but denied having sex with her.