Ghanaian Times

Man jailed 20 years for fatal rape

The Ghanaian Times report that a 10-year-old Primary Four schoolgirl who was defiled by a` 25-year-old farmer, never recovered from the resultant strain and trauma. She died about two months after her harrowing experience.

The paper says the prosecutor of the Dormaa Circuit Court in the Brong Ahafo Region, Mr Beresford Safo-Acquah, Assistant State Attorney, strongly advocated the maximum 25 years for the culprit, Kwadwo Mfum, when judgement was to be delivered by the court at the weekend.

The paper says the judge, Mr V.G.K. Anyimey, out of mercy, reduced the maximum sentence and jailed Mfum for 20 years in hard labour. The sentence, the paper says, takes retrospective effect from March 2, last year, the day the accused first appeared in court.

The Times says a medical report stated that the girl died as a result of being "vaginally and anally abused". The paper says the court convicted Mfum on his own plea of guilty of defilement.