54-year-old woman breaks 50-year silence on alleged abuse by Pastor father

A 54-year-old woman, Afua Kesse-Amponsah, has detailed what she describes as decades of abuse by her father, ending what she says has been 50 years of silence.

Speaking in an interview with JoyNews, Kesse-Amponsah, born in 1971 to an Irish mother and a Ghanaian father, said her life took a downward turn at the age of two when her father assumed custody of her.

According to her, her father began abusing her in early childhood, initially because she was left-handed. She claimed he tried to force her to switch to using her right hand, citing cultural beliefs as justification.

“So he started to beat me because he was trying to get me to change from left-handed to right-handed. Akan people don’t like using their left hand. Am I lying? It’s all built into you from childhood. And so for him, it was a crime.

“One that he was determined to fix. It was a fault. And he broke my left hand first to try and persuade me to use it,” she said.

Kesse-Amponsah alleged that the abuse escalated over time, resulting in multiple serious injuries. She said she suffered repeated assaults that led to memory loss after sustaining a fractured skull.

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“He subjected me to constant, severe, chronic violence, and I had no idea how bad it was because he fractured my skull. So I lost my memory.

“I had amnesia as a result. I have multiple fractures to the skull, a split around my head, a broken nose, broken cheekbones, a broken jaw, six cracks along my spine, a fracture at the back by my tailbone and pelvis, and a fracture in the front. My leg came out, the thigh bone broke, the two bones here broke, and the ankle fractured. The sternum broke,” she noted.

She further alleged that following beatings, her father administered powdered aspirin mixed with water to reduce visible swelling, often without food. She said this practice caused internal injuries and long-term health complications.

“So he would feed me aspirin, which was in powdered form in water at night after he’d beaten me. That would take down the inflammation, and no one would see that the bone was broken. It burns the inside of my stomach because he was feeding it to me without me eating. I have ulcers throughout my body. Sores inside me. I’ve been bleeding internally since I was five,” she shared.

Kesse-Amponsah, now living with severe disabilities, said she later received treatment at St Thomas’ Hospital for Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD), which she described as a lifelong condition linked to prolonged trauma.

“I started being treated at St Thomas’ for complex post-traumatic stress disorder. It is a lifelong condition. I suffer from flashbacks. I live in the seventies. I have no life of my own,” she noted.

She said she reported the matter to UK police as a historical child abuse case but was informed that no prosecution could proceed because her father is deceased. She noted that the complaint remains on record.

“I did report it to the police as a historical allegation of child abuse. They told me they couldn’t do anything because he was dead, but it is on record. They advised me to go after the institutions that failed in their duty of care, namely the schools I attended, the council that was supposed to be looking after me, the government, basically,” she added.

Kesse-Amponsah said she is now pursuing accountability from schools and public institutions she believes failed to safeguard her during her childhood.

She also used the interview to criticise corporal punishment practices, particularly within some Ghanaian communities, urging a shift toward non-violent forms of discipline.

“You get kids, and you’re abusing them. You’re raising your hand to them. Who are you? Look at your own life.

“Don’t do that ‘spare the rod’ stuff, because we’re in 2025. Child abuse exists. That book was written 15, 20 hundred years ago. It does not apply to today.

“A human being is a human being and has rights, whether it’s a baby or an adult. We need to start treating our children with more respect and restraint. Yes, you can discipline your child, but you can do that without beating them. You’re treating them as you would treat dogs, and the way you treat dogs is not acceptable either. You’re too violent against things that are smaller than you and can’t fight back,” she added.

Watch the video below:

“He subjected me to constant, severe, chronic violence” – 54-year-old woman speaks out on abuse suffered at the hands of her father.#JoyNews pic.twitter.com/pEc2LHi6U5

— JoyNews (@JoyNewsOnTV) February 17, 2026