Man 42, jailed 15 years for incest

Cape Coast, Feb. 01, GNA - A Cape Coast Circuit court on Wednesday, sentenced John Kwesi Obeng 42, from Eguase near Moree in the Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese District of the Central Region to 15 years imprisonment in hard labour for incest.

Obeng pleaded guilty to two counts of incest and defiling his 12-year old daughter.

He was sentenced to 12 months for incest and 15 years for defilement, both sentences to run concurrently.

In his ruling, Mr Justice Beresford Acquah, the presiding judge, said the action of the accused "was not only against the law but God". Police Chief Inspector Hope Azasoo, prosecuting told the court that the victim lived with her father at Eguase because, her mother was mentally ill, and Obeng started defiling her sometime in December last year.

He said Obeng would beat the victim anytime she resisted, and sometime in January this year, she received similar treatment when she refused to be defiled.

The prosecution said the victim narrated her ordeal to her peers at school the following day and they reported the matter to their class teacher who informed Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service in the district. He said Obeng was arrested and after investigations charged with the offences.