Serial killer faces another murder charge

A Community Tribunal in Accra on Wednesday committed, Charles Quansah, a self-confessed serial killer, to stand trial at a High Court for allegedly murdering one Millicent Mawunya Adeku at Adenta. In the dock, Quansah, 33, a mechanic told the tribunal, chaired by Mr. Kojo Owusu that while he was in custody, he was served with a bill of indictment.

According to him, he did not know the deceased but one Malik informed him, that a woman was found dead at Adenta that morning, saying, he intends calling Malik as a witness in the case. The accused also explained that a "T" shirt allegedly worn by the deceased at the time of her death belonged to him.

Police Inspector Peter Benneh, who prosecuted, said that Adeku, 32, was living at Adenta Housing Down with her fianc?, Charles Kofi Sampong, who is a porter at the University of Ghana, Legon. He said Quansah, who formerly lived at Dansoman later moved to Adenta in September 2000 and that during the first week of December that year, the accused met the deceased in a drinking spot belonging to her relative, one Boamah.

The accused was said to have proposed love to the deceased but Boamah, warned him that she was married. On 10 December 2000, the deceased went to see her husband off to work at about 1500 hours at the Adenta Housing Down taxi rank, and later visited her sister Esi Kumah and Amedjo a relative. Amedjo saw her off later in the day but that was the last time the deceased was seen.

According to the prosecutor, Adeku was seen dead on 11 December 2000 behind a house at Pawpaw Street, Adenta Housing Down. It was detected that the "T" shirt that the deceased was wearing the previous day was missing and that her body was lying naked with her legs widely opened, exposing her genital organs.

" She was found to have defecated with faeces and blood around her anus," the prosecutor added. Inspector Benneh said the deceased's panties was also found beside her and smeared with faeces, while the skirt was pulled to her waist. The prosecutor said autopsy conducted on the body revealed that the deceased was strangled. He said that police investigations led to the arrest of Quansah and also the recovery of the missing "T" shirt in his house.

Quansah denied having murdered the deceased, but later broke down in tears and explained that he was possessed by an evil spirit that attacks people who offended him and that the deceased once insulted him at a drinking bar. The prosecutor said, the accused confessed that when he met the deceased on the night of 10 December 2000 he became possessed and therefore, strangled Adeku to death.