Farmer jailed 25 years for incest

A father who confessed to defiling his eight-year-old biological daughter has been sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in hard labour by a Kumasi circuit court.

Jude Kuunifaa, 30, suffers from epilepsy and had sought to blame the crime on a seizure. He claimed it was involuntary and that he had lost consciousness during the attack.

“My Lord, I did not know I was sleeping with my daughter until my wife told me when I came to myself.”

The court, presided over by Mr William Boampong, was, however, unconvinced.

Police Inspector Gulliver Tenkorang said Kuunifaa, a farmer, lived at Sekyedomasi in the Ejura-Sekyedomasi Municipality with his wife and three children.

The spouse had left the house for church on January 3, at about 1900 hours, but had to return about 30 minutes later to take her medicine only to find to her utter shock, the husband in the act of sexually abusing their daughter.

She raised the alarm and that angered the convict, who pounced on her and severely beat her. She was rescued by a family member.

A formal report was made to the police and a medical form issued to the victim for treatment at the Ejura Government Hospital.

Doctors who attended to her in a signed report confirmed that she had, indeed, been defiled.