Garden boy gets seven year for defiling a 13 year-old

Accra (Greater Accra) 17 June '99

On the night of May 25, this year, Salifu Hamidu sneaked into her neighbours room whiles he had gone to work and forcibly had sexual intercourse with the man's 13 year old girl.

In the process, the victim's mother, who was sleeping outside in the compound, heard a noise coming from her room and to her surprise, she saw Hamidu coming out of the room, an Accra Circuit Tribunal heard on Wednesday.

According to the prosecution, Hamidu's explanation to the victim's mother was that he saw a mouse entering the room and he went in to kill it.

The victim, however came out and narrated the incident to her mother who reported the matter to the Kotobabi Police.

Hamidu, 19, pleaded guilty to defilement and was convicted accordingly by the tribunal chaired by Mr Charles Louis Quist, on Wednesday. He has been sentenced to seven years in prison in hard labour for defilement.

In another development, the same tribunal sentenced Adjetey Sowah, a steel bender, to seven years imprisonment in hard labour for defiling a 10-year-old girl at Ashalley Botwe in the Ga District.

Sowah, 18, pleaded guilty to defilement and was accordingly convicted.

Prosecuting, Police Inspector Alex Yartey Tawiah told the tribunal, that Sowah lives together with the victim, a schoolgirl, and her mother in the same house.

The prosecutor said on May 21, this year, the victim was sacked from school to collect fees but, while on an errand for the mother, Sowah lured her into his room, laid her in bed and forcibly had sexual intercourse with her.

The prosecutor said on May 22, the victim's mother detected a change in the girl's behaviour and when asked, she told her mother about the incident and a report was made to the Madina Police.

He said the victim was issued with a medical form to attend hospital and Sowah was arrested.