Police Investigator testifies in Deeba's case

A Police officer on Tuesday mounted the witness box to testify in respect of Deeba Acheampong’s case, a musician currently facing extradition to the United Kingdom over alleged defilement and assault of his two step daughters.

Despite the absence of Deeba’s lawyer, Detective Lance Corporal Ali G. Briamah, the case investigator, told the court that Deeba was arrested at La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Accra during an undercover operation.

According to DLC Briamah, Deeba’s arrest was necessitated based on the arrest warrant issued from a court in Great Britain for the offence of rape of a child under 13 years and assault of a minor occasioned through body harm.

The case investigator told the court that the alleged offences were committed in the UK between 2005 and 2008.

According to the Police Detective during investigations, he received prepositions (sworn affidavit), diplomatic cable documents, from the Ministries Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and Interior, copies of treaty between Ghana and UK which he tendered in court.

The court presided over by Mr Aboagye Tandoh presented the documents to Deeba to go through them.

When the court asked Deeba to cross examine the case investigator, he said he had no questions.

Mr Bukari Abdulai, a lawyer who prayed the court to hold brief for the substantive lawyer, Mr Augustines Obuor, conducted cross examination on Deeba’s behalf.

The court adjourned the matter to February 19 for continuation of the cross-examination.

Deeba is currently facing five counts of defilement and assault under Ghana’s laws, raping a female under the age of 13 and assaulting a minor under the United Kingdom’s laws.

Although the charges and the facts have been read out to Deeba in court, his plea had been reserved.

The facts of the case are that in December 2012, INTERPOL Accra received a request of arrest warrant from its counterpart in London to the effect that between 2004 and 2008, while living in the UK, the accused person had a relationship with a woman who already had two daughters, aged eight and six, from her previous relationship.

Subsequently, Deeba and the woman had two children from their union. Initially, they lived separately, but when the woman went on night shift, Deeba took care of the home and cared for the children.

That, the prosecutor said, continued until September 2008 when Deeba returned to Ghana to pursue his musical career.

But two weeks after his departure from the UK, Deeba’s step-daughter told her mother that her step-father had sexual intercourse with her on several occasions whenever her mother went to work in the night.

According to the prosecutor, on those occasions, Deeba invited the little girl into the bedroom to watch pornographic films with him, after which he would lay her on the bed, kiss her mouth, apply baby oil on his penis and have sex with her.

The little girl also alleged that the accused person sometimes had anal sex with her and that after each act he put a sanitary towel in her panties to avoid evidence of bloodstains and also hid his stained bed sheet. She further alleged that Deeba threatened to beat her if she disclosed the acts to anyone.

Deeba, the prosecutor said, assaulted the little girl’s sister between June 1 and 4, 2008 when she attempted to satisfy her inquisitiveness about what was happening to her sister and that led to a cut on the back of the girl’s head.

A medical examination on the little girl by a forensic physician, Dr. Ainsley Kassie, revealed extensive damage to her hymen as a result of vaginal penetration.

Deeba was said to have denied the offence when he was confronted by his fiancée, who later lodged a complaint with the police, following which a warrant was issued by the Northampton-Shire Magistrate's Court for the arrest of the accused person.

Deeba was arrested at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra during an undercover operation.

He has, however, denied the offence in his caution statement to the police.