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Superintendent Sophia Eva Anim of the Madina Office of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, has revealed that her unit is currently investigating and prosecuting many cases of alleged sexual abuse perpetrated by fathers on their own daughters, adding that fathers who bathe their teenage daughters could be held for sexual abuse.
Superintendent Anim added that cases of sexual abuse were widespread and parents and guardians ought to take a keen interest in their children and wards so that incidents of sexual abuse could be detected and earlier and appropriate action taken.
Speaking at a Sensitisation Programme on the Domestic Violence Act( Act 732) in Accra recently, she further cautioned parents to desist from corporal punishment since it could result in emotional and psychological abuse of their children.
She also encouraged children and their parents as well as guardians to report alleged cases of abuse to the police instead of resorting to home settlement which usually leads to perpetrators of going scot-free, emboldening others to commit similar crimes.
Defilement and Sodomy
Superintendent Anim explained that girls below 16 years cannot give consent to sex, warning that anyone who has sexual intercourse with such girls’ commits defilement and is liable to a minimum prison term of 7 years and a maximum term of 25 years.
She also explained that sodomy, otherwise defined in the laws as part of unnatural carnal knowledge, is anal sex involving penetration with a penis. This offence, she said, also carries a minimum prison term of 7 years and a maximum term of 25 years.
Various speakers at the programme, among others, appealed to persons to endeavour to not shield perpetrators of domestic violence.
