"Jesus One-Touch" Jailed For 10 Years

Accra, Jan. 20, GNA - Nana Kofi Yirenkyi, aka Jesus One Touch, Founder and General Overseer of the Jesus Blood Prophetic Ministry at Oblogo in Accra, was on Thursday sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment each on two counts of incest and defilement by an Accra Circuit Court.

The sentences, however, are to run concurrently. This was after the court presided over by Mrs Georgina Mensah-Datsa, after an 11-month trial, found Yirenkyi, 47, guilty on the charges. The prosecution said he defiled his 10-year-old daughter, one of his six children.

The court noted that the prosecution had been able to prove all the essential elements of the charges hence handed down the sentence. It said it found the evidence of the victim truthful. However, it could not reconcile the evidence that Yirenkyi, while at the Akropong Divisional Police Command, pleaded to offer money to the victim's mother and settle the case amicably.

According to the court, that piece of evidence was not recorded in the Police Diary of Action.

It further noted that the report in which Efo Emma, the securityman of Yirenkyi, who is now at large, was said to have inserted his fingers into the victim's private part, was only a case of indecent assault and not defilement.

When asked what he had to say before the sentence was passed, Yirenkyi, who was dressed in ash suit with white shirt and shoes with a blue tie, bowed and shook his head.

As the court handed down the sentences, the audience shouted out "eeesh."

"If you can't stand the heat, go out," the trial judge reacted. "The judgement I have read is not the end of the world. You have the right to appeal," she told the accused.

As he was escorted out amidst heavy police presence, Yirenkyi's final words were, "If I defiled my daughter, the God I serve should kill me." He cheerfully waved at his family members and members of his congregation, some of whom were dressed in white T-shirt with the blue inscription "Jesus One Touch."

Some of the convict's relatives, as well as members of his congregation, were seen seated on bare floor wailing and casting insinuations.

The vehicles carrying him out of the court premises nearly ran into each other, as the Police found it difficult to move their vehicles through the crowd.

Mr K.N. Adomako Acheampong, defence counsel, in his plea for mitigation told the court that his client was a first offender and he should be given the minimum sentence. Yirenkyi had denied the charges of incest and defilement. His daughter had said her father had sex with her three times a week before attending church service.

However, the convict said he had never engaged in sexual intercourse even with his wife three times in a week. In all, the prosecution called eight witnesses while defence counsel called three witnesses.

The prosecution's case was that the victim, born out of wedlock, lived with her mother, Madam Asamaa, until 2005 when she left to live with the convict at McCarthy Hill in Accra to attend school. It said between 2008 and 2009, Yirenkyi started defiling the victim each time he attended church service.

In November 2009, the accused asked the victim's mother to talk to her because she was misbehaving. It was during the interaction with her mother that she revealed her ordeal indicating that Yirenkyi had sex with her on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays and used a white handkerchief to wipe his sperm. The victim was initially examined by a medical doctor and later transferred to the Police Hospital for further treatment.