Hands boiling dad jailed

The Ashaiman Circuit Court has sentenced to jail the 25-year-old man who dipped the hands of his eight-year-old daughter into boiled water, alleging that the girl had stolen fish from soup.

Jacob Kuli, a truck pusher and resident of Valco Flat, an Ashaiman suburb in the Greater Accra Region, was sentenced to 36 months imprisonment with hard labour by the court, presided over by Lydia Osei Marfo.

He pleaded guilty to the charge of causing harm and was sentenced on his own plea in the case which was prosecuted by Inspector Mary Assan.

From a medical report, the court noticed that the victim was suffering from trauma and therefore recommended that she stayed away from the relatives of the accused person.

The Social Welfare Division in Ashaiman was made to take custody of the child and hand her over to the Osu Children’s Home in Accra until a proper relative of the victim showed up “to demonstrate beyond all reasonable doubt” that he or she could take good care of the child.

The Ashaiman Division of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service on June 25, 2014 received complaint about Jacob Kuli burning both hands of his daughter – a kindergarten pupil – after caning her severely.

Joseph Adjetey Adei, a witness in the case and Jacob’s landlord who was said to have warned the accused person on several occasions about his continued assault of the child, visited the house at about 6:00 am on June 26, 2014, and saw the victim with bruises all over her body and hands bandaged.

Adjetey enquired from the victim what had happened to her and she narrated her ordeal to him. A complaint was lodged with the Ashaiman Divisional DOVVSU where police medical report form was issued for the victim to be taken the hospital for medical examination.

Upon receiving the medical report, the police began investigations which led to the arrest and prosecution of Kuli.