Farmer jailed 18 years for incest

Kumasi, Nov. 29, GNA 96 A 46-year-old farmer, Yaw Antobre was on Tuesday sentenced by a Kumasi Circuit court to 18 years imprisonment for impregnating his 15-year-old daughter.

Antobre was convicted on his own plea for incest and defilement. He showed remorsefulness and asked for the court's leniency but the presiding judge Mr Justice R.M. Kogyapwah entered a plea of not guilty for him.

In his ruling Mr Justice Kogyapwah said conduct of the accused was bestial and dangerous, therefore he did not deserve to live in the society where he could spread his infectious behaviour among the right thinking members of society.

He said there was the need to keep him away from society for a long time since it appeared he intentionally sent his wife away in order to sleep with his own daughter.

=93The convict's 18-year-old jail term is to serve as a deterrent to other members of the public,=94 he added. Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector Comfort Baffour-Kyei told the court that the victim, a Junior Secondary School (JSS) One student together with her two other siblings lived with the accused at Agya-Awuah village near Tepa in the Ahafo-Ano North district. She said the accused and mother of the victim had divorced. Police Chief Inspector Baffour-Kyei said on November 23, this year, Tepa police was informed that the accused was responsible for the victim's pregnancy.

She said a formal report to the police by a witness led to the arrest of the accused and during interrogation, the victim revealed that her father in March this year, asked her to stop schooling and kept her in the cottage and defiled her on many occasions. Police Chief Inspector Baffour-Kyei said a pregnancy test at Tepa District Hospital revealed that the victim was five months three weeks pregnant. She said a scan recorded 23 weeks and five days of pregnancy and after investigations the accused was charged with the offence.