Trial of serial killer begins

An Accra High Court will today begin hearing the case in which Charles Ebo Quansah, a self-confessed serial killer, has been charged with the murder of some women.

Quansah is alleged to have confessed to the killing of eight women in Accra and Kumasi. He was in prison custody while a bill of indictment and summary of evidence was being prepared by the Attorney General’s Office to begin his trial. On March 15, this year, an Accra Community Tribunal committed Quansah to stand trial at a High Court on the murder of Akua Serwa, a 24-year-old hairdresser in Kumasi.

The facts of the case in respect of the murder of Serwa were that in 1996, while serving a prison term for robbery at the Nsawam Medium Prisons, Quansah met William Bittar, a Lebanese, who helped him to secure a job in Kumasi.

The accused befriended Serwa in 1996 while in Kumasi, where he allegedly strangled her, after a drinking spree at a drinking bar near the Kumasi Sports Stadium.

A Police statement issued on May 15, last year, alleged that Quansah killed women in Kumasi, Dansoman, Mataheko and Adenta, all in Accra. The statement said Quansah, who hails from Komenda in the Central Region, allegedly killed the women by strangulating them.

He was arrested at his Adenta residence in February last year, following intensive investigations into the serial murders, including the setting up of a special team made up of experts in crime scene management and interrogation.

The police said Quansah had served jail terms at the James Fort and Nsawam Medium Prisons for rape.