Court remands carpenter for defilement

A 20-year old Carpenter, Nicholas Kpakpo, was on Wednesday remanded by an Accra Circuit Court for defiling a 15-year old girl.

Nicholas, who was said to have defiled the girl at American Farm, a suburb of Ngleshie Amanfrom, pleaded not guilty to the charge but was remanded by the court to reappear on December 10.

The facts of the case as presented by Police Inspector Kofi Atimbire are that the victim is a 15-year old student of St Peters Catholic School and lives with her parents and other siblings at American Farm, while the accused person, a Carpenter also lives with his uncle in the same area.

He said about three months ago the biological father of the victim, the complainant in the case, engaged the services of the accused person in his house.

The prosecution said when Nicholas arrived in the complainant’s house at about 0700 hours to render his service to the complainant on that day, he met the victim alone in the house sweeping the compound.

He told the court that the accused person introduced himself to the victim and then engaged her in a conversation until the complainant came and he finished his job and left.

Police Inspector Atimbire said after that the accused person and the victim became very good friends without the knowledge of the complainant.

Nicholas took advantage of the friendship and invited the victim to a nearby uncompleted building not far from their house and had sex with her.

He said the practice went on several times between the accused person and the victim in the same premise but the victim refused to disclose it to her parents until the complainant spotted the victim and Nicholas in the uncompleted building on his way from work.

According to the prosecution, the complainant on seeing the two invited the accused person to his house and questioned and advised him against such behaviour but Nicholas denied having known the victim, and left.

He said the victim later on confessed to the complainant that the accused person has been having sex with her anytime she accepted gifts like Indomie noodles and money from him.

Police Inspector Atimbire said the complainant without hesitation looked out for Nicholas and arrested him and sent him to the New Weija police station where he lodged a case against the accused person for necessary actions.

The complainant was then issued with police medical form to send the victim to the hospital for examination and report. During investigations, Nicholas denied the offence in his caution statement.