Sulley Malik, a 29-year-old mason, who lured three pupils from La Wireless area into a garden and defiled them, was on Friday sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by an Accra Circuit Court.
Malik was convicted on his own plea.
The court presided over by Ms Sedina Agbemava sentenced the accused on two counts of defilement and three years for indecent assault to run concurrently.
The prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Sarah Acquah said the three victims aged nine, eight and seven were in class three, two and one respectively.
She said all the victims were friends, who lived in the same vicinity at La Wireless with their mothers while the accused also lived at La.
ASP Acquah said on February 1, the victims were playing in the neighbourhood when Malik spotted them and lured them into a nearby garden and defiled two of them and indecently assaulted the third victim by rubbing his penis on her buttocks.
She said after the act the accused gave the victims GHc1.00 to share among themselves and warned them not to disclose the ordeal to anyone else they would die.
The prosecutor said the victims fearing that they would die kept the ordeal to themselves until February 12, when the first victim disclosed it to her elder sister who also informed the second victim’s mother.
ASP Acquah said a formal complaint was lodged at the Cantonments Police station and the complainants were issued with Police medical forms to send the victims to hospital for examination and treatment.
She said when the accused was arrested he stated that he only used his penis to brush the buttocks of the third victim.
ASP Acquah said the case was transferred to the Domestic Violence and Victim's Support Unit (DOVVSU) and in his caution statement admitted the offence.
