Ex-convict before court for defilement

Cape Coast, March 4, GNA - An ex-convict, who allegedly posed as a medical doctor and a spiritualist and defiled a 13-year-old girl under the pretext of curing her of an ailment, was on Tuesday remanded in prison custody by a circuit court in Cape Coast.

John Tsidi, 48, a native of Aveyime Battor in the Volta Region, pleaded not guilty and will reappear in court on March 10, 2009. Prosecuting, Police Superintendent (Supt.) Godact Lordzi told the court, presided over by Mr Richard Asiedu Badu that sometime in September last year, Tsidi went to Assin-Foso, where he introduced himself to the complainant Madam Gifty Hansen and her mother Mary Hansen as a medical doctor and a spiritualist.

Supt Lordzi said Tsidi told the two women that he could cure the victim of an ailment and collected a fee of GH¢800 from them and later took the girl in his care. The court heard that Tsidi took advantage of the situation and defiled the girl on two occasions and then bolted to Accra. A report was made to the police who mounted a search for him and arrested him two months later at a hideout at Weija near Accra.