Pastor in court for defilement

The resident pastor of the Fruitful Family Ministries Inc. Tamale branch, Daniel Appiah Antwi, 35, will today appear before a Tamale circuit court for allegedly defiling his 15-year-old maid at Kpalsi, a suburb of the Tamale metropolis.

Pastor Antwi, who has admitted sexually molesting the girl severally in the open court and in his caution statement, could face up to 25 years’ imprisonment term if found guilty of the offence, according to lawyers.

He has already been slapped with a 60-day jail term with hard labour by the same court for physically assaulting the maid.

According to the facts of the case, the victim (name withheld) is an orphan who lives with her cousin, the pastor’s wife, as a house help and suffered various forms of abuses by the couple.

Attempts by cotenants to rescue the girl from the alleged inhumane treatment meted out to her rather incurred the wrath of Pastor Antwi, who was reported to have threatened to vent his spleen on any intruder. The accused and his wife reportedly travelled and left their older ward under the care of the victim with 5kg of rice and some tubers of yam. On their return, however, they noticed that the food stock had been depleted and out of fury, the accused allegedly picked a computer cable and mercilessly beat the girl.

As a result, the maid was said to have sustained a deep cut on her head and bled profusely but was not given proper medical care by the pastor.

Public-spirited persons in the neighbourhood reported the conduct of the pastor to the Tamale office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), which in turn referred it to the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service.

After investigations, the pastor was arrested for physically assaulting the victim and causing harm to her.

In the course of investigations, it was also established by the police that the minor had on countless occasions been sexually abused by Pastor Daniel Appiah Antwi. He had initially said the allegation of defilement was a plot against him by his enemies but later admitted committing the offence and blamed the devil for it.

A medical report obtained from the Tamale Central Hospital by the police confirmed that the victim had indeed been sexually abused.

Meanwhile, the court has directed that the victim be kept at the Tamale Children’s Home pending the determination of who would take custody of her.