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.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Christ Apostolic Church Elder defiles girl, 15
A 15-year-old class six pupil is battling for her life after she was continuously defiled by an Elder of the Christ Apostolic Church in Akwaduuso, a farming community in the Atiwa District of the Eastern Region.
The suspect, Jonathan Okine is believed to have forced himself on the victim on different locations including, the farm, animal Pen and on a toilet.
The minor reportedly narrated her ordeal to her parents after she bled profusely last week. She was then rushed to the Abomosu health center where she was later referred to the Engresi Government Hospital for specialized treatment.
Narrating her ordeal to starr News’ Eastern Regional Correspondent Kojo Ansah, the victim said the suspect lured her to the locations while her mother was away from home. She was given GHC1 after each encounter.
Meanwhile, the Leadership of the church in the area led by the Presiding Elder, Isaac Ayetey, is reportedly pleading for an amicable resolution of the case.
A bottle of schnapps has already been given to the father of the victim by the church ahead of a meeting with the traditional authorities in the area.
The suspect, Jonathan Okine is believed to have forced himself on the victim on different locations including, the farm, animal Pen and on a toilet.
The minor reportedly narrated her ordeal to her parents after she bled profusely last week. She was then rushed to the Abomosu health center where she was later referred to the Engresi Government Hospital for specialized treatment.
Narrating her ordeal to starr News’ Eastern Regional Correspondent Kojo Ansah, the victim said the suspect lured her to the locations while her mother was away from home. She was given GHC1 after each encounter.
Meanwhile, the Leadership of the church in the area led by the Presiding Elder, Isaac Ayetey, is reportedly pleading for an amicable resolution of the case.
A bottle of schnapps has already been given to the father of the victim by the church ahead of a meeting with the traditional authorities in the area.
Monday, August 17, 2015
Witchcraft branding and the abuse of African children in the UK: causes, effects and professional intervention
Prospera Tedam
Early Child Development and Care 10/2014; 184(9-10). DOI: 10.1080/03004430.2014.901015
ABSTRACT The branding of children as ‘witches’, capable of harming others is a widespread practice in some countries in Africa and across the world. There is evidence of this within specific communities and faith groups; however, the extent to which this phenomenon occurs in England is unclear as is the response by childcare professionals, statutory agencies and Voluntary Organisations.
Between 2000 and 2010, at least six children lost their lives in different parts of the UK following periods of abuse, neglect and trauma linked to what is now known as abuse arising from being labelled ‘witches’. Each of these children, died because their parent or carer believed that they were responsible for ill luck, ill fortune and/or ill health that had befallen them and/or members of their families.
Drawing upon a children's rights framework, this paper aims to provide a critical examination of child abuse that is caused by a belief that children can and are ‘witches’ or possess some evil spirits, making them capable of causing harm and discord within a family. Existing literature will be interrogated to provide some background and a historical context to this alarming and abusive practice.
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/265341808_Witchcraft_branding_and_the_abuse_of_African_children_in_the_UK_causes_effects_and_professional_intervention
Ghana: Witchcraft Accusations in Schools
Details Written by Leo Igwe C Published: 05 July 2013
http://archive.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/2166-ghana-witchcraft-accusations-in-schools.html
Witchcraft suspicion is ubiquitous in Ghana, a deeply pervasive social reality simmering under the social surface. An unexpected death, sudden disease or misfortune trigger suspicions. Suspicion murmurs into accusation. Accusations can justify exile or death at the hands of a mob.
Suspicion of witchcraft can touch men as well as women, the very old and even children can be branded witches. Witchcraft accusation and resulting execution occurs in rural and urban areas, on the streets, in the market places, on farms and in offices. Schools and colleges are not immune, teachers and students accuse and are accused.
No one is above suspicion of practicing malevolent magic. But witchcraft accusation has dreadful consequences. It is a stigma that socially discredits the accused. A witch is a criminal, a destroyer of life and property, a bloodthirsty murderer who kills others through mysterious spiritual means. A witch is seen as conniving and dangerous.
Witchcraft "Spoils your name." Witchcraft shames and disgraces the accused and even the family of the accused. Accusation stains the reputation of all it touches. The accused are forced to flee their homes, forced into witch camps or killed. The whisper of accusation strikes fear of ruin and death.
In 2012, a 17 year old girl was forced to leave school and then was banished to a witch camp in Gambaga following an accusation The girl was intelligent excelling in her tests and examinations, but she was accused of "Stealing other students’ brains" with witchcraft and spells. It took the intervention of the Ghanaian Deputy Minister for Women and Children Affairs for the girl to be released from the witch camp and returned to her family.
The future of another teenage girl, Roda, in Nalerigu, in the Northern Region of Ghana is hanging in the balance at this writing. She is accused of bewitching the school prefect and preventing him from taking this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). She is in junior high school and was to graduate in the coming year.
Last December the school prefect, a senior, punished Roda and out of anger she told the boy that he would not write this year’s BECE. Seven months later, a few weeks before the examination, the school prefect took ill. He could not see properly and could not sit for the BECE. The school prefect was rushed to a nearby hospital, the Baptist Medical Centre, where he received some treatment.
Roda was branded a witch. She was accused of being responsible for the illness, of making the boy blind through witchcraft. The matter was reported to the headmaster of the school who urged Roda to ‘forgive’ the school prefect and to undo whatever witchcraft she used on him. But Roda was crying and repeatedly said that she did not know anything about the sickness; that she never did anything to the prefect apart from the threat she issued. But nobody believed her.
The matter was taken to the chief of Nalerigu where the school was located but the chief referred the matter to the chief of Gambaga, known as the Gambarana. The Gambarana is not only the traditional political head of Gambaga but also the spiritual head. He performs rituals to confirm or cleanse accused persons of witchcraft. He is the custodian of the Gambaga ‘witch’ camp.
According to Roda, after listening to their stories the Gambarana decided, Roda may be a witch and she may have used witchcraft. But instead of performing a ritual to confirm if Roda was actually a witch. He had her returned to the chief of Nalerigu to resolve the matter.
The community was now sure that Roda was a witch, and that she made the school prefect blind. Many people suspected that she got the ‘witchcraft’ she used on the school prefect from her father. But her father denied knowing anything about the sickness or giving any ‘juju’ to his daughter.
I visited the prefect at the hospital and noticed that he was not blind as had been rumored but was not seeing properly either. He could see and identify human beings but could not properly see or read words and sentences typed or written on a book or paper. According medical officials at the hospital, the school prefect had a heart problem; the boy's heart was failing. And due to the heart condition, the body organs including the eyes were not functioning properly. They said there was nothing wrong with the eyes. If the heart condition were rectified, the vision would be restored.
This medical center has limited facilities to diagnose and treat heart related problems so there are plans to refer him to hospitals with better equipment and specialists in Kumasi or Accra for a second opinion. The family of the boy is poor and needs financial assistance to carry out further medical examination.
Meanwhile Roda has dropped out of school. She is currently staying with her parents in the village. They are worried that she might be harmed due to the witchcraft accusation. It took a lot of negotiation for the parents and the elders in the community to allow me to see and interview her. I was questioned about my mission and cleared by chiefs in two different communities before I was able to meet with her. Finally I was allowed to visit Roda in her village.
Roda said she stopped attending school because she could no longer move and interact freely in the community. In the school and on the streets, people jeered at her calling her a witch. And in the school, students made caricatures of her. Some were afraid of coming close to her. Others attributed any slight scratch or bruise on their body to her ‘witch chopping’ scheme. She said she felt miserable and unsafe because the family and friends of the school prefect were angry with her. They believed she made him ‘blind’ and prevented him from taking the BECE. She and her parents have moved to another village where she is currently staying. But the witchcraft allegation has followed her.
Roda’s parents said following the accusation, they decided to withdraw her from the school so that she could marry, a plan I vehemently opposed. But they worried that it would be difficult to find her another school within the area because of the stigma of witchcraft accusation. Only after persistent persuasion did the parents pledge to send her to the regional capital, Tamale, so that she could continue her education there. I had pressured them into making this promise. In the future I will have to monitor the situation to see if they have fulfilled this pledge.
If efforts are not made to support her, the girl will lose her education to an accusation of witchcraft. She is one of many.
Leo Igwe is a skeptical activist in Nigeria and a former representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. He is partnering with the JREF to respond in a more organized and grassroots way to the growing superstitious beliefs about witchcraft throughout the continent of Africa.
http://archive.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/2166-ghana-witchcraft-accusations-in-schools.html
Witchcraft suspicion is ubiquitous in Ghana, a deeply pervasive social reality simmering under the social surface. An unexpected death, sudden disease or misfortune trigger suspicions. Suspicion murmurs into accusation. Accusations can justify exile or death at the hands of a mob.
Suspicion of witchcraft can touch men as well as women, the very old and even children can be branded witches. Witchcraft accusation and resulting execution occurs in rural and urban areas, on the streets, in the market places, on farms and in offices. Schools and colleges are not immune, teachers and students accuse and are accused.
No one is above suspicion of practicing malevolent magic. But witchcraft accusation has dreadful consequences. It is a stigma that socially discredits the accused. A witch is a criminal, a destroyer of life and property, a bloodthirsty murderer who kills others through mysterious spiritual means. A witch is seen as conniving and dangerous.
Witchcraft "Spoils your name." Witchcraft shames and disgraces the accused and even the family of the accused. Accusation stains the reputation of all it touches. The accused are forced to flee their homes, forced into witch camps or killed. The whisper of accusation strikes fear of ruin and death.
In 2012, a 17 year old girl was forced to leave school and then was banished to a witch camp in Gambaga following an accusation The girl was intelligent excelling in her tests and examinations, but she was accused of "Stealing other students’ brains" with witchcraft and spells. It took the intervention of the Ghanaian Deputy Minister for Women and Children Affairs for the girl to be released from the witch camp and returned to her family.
The future of another teenage girl, Roda, in Nalerigu, in the Northern Region of Ghana is hanging in the balance at this writing. She is accused of bewitching the school prefect and preventing him from taking this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). She is in junior high school and was to graduate in the coming year.
Last December the school prefect, a senior, punished Roda and out of anger she told the boy that he would not write this year’s BECE. Seven months later, a few weeks before the examination, the school prefect took ill. He could not see properly and could not sit for the BECE. The school prefect was rushed to a nearby hospital, the Baptist Medical Centre, where he received some treatment.
Roda was branded a witch. She was accused of being responsible for the illness, of making the boy blind through witchcraft. The matter was reported to the headmaster of the school who urged Roda to ‘forgive’ the school prefect and to undo whatever witchcraft she used on him. But Roda was crying and repeatedly said that she did not know anything about the sickness; that she never did anything to the prefect apart from the threat she issued. But nobody believed her.
The matter was taken to the chief of Nalerigu where the school was located but the chief referred the matter to the chief of Gambaga, known as the Gambarana. The Gambarana is not only the traditional political head of Gambaga but also the spiritual head. He performs rituals to confirm or cleanse accused persons of witchcraft. He is the custodian of the Gambaga ‘witch’ camp.
According to Roda, after listening to their stories the Gambarana decided, Roda may be a witch and she may have used witchcraft. But instead of performing a ritual to confirm if Roda was actually a witch. He had her returned to the chief of Nalerigu to resolve the matter.
The community was now sure that Roda was a witch, and that she made the school prefect blind. Many people suspected that she got the ‘witchcraft’ she used on the school prefect from her father. But her father denied knowing anything about the sickness or giving any ‘juju’ to his daughter.
I visited the prefect at the hospital and noticed that he was not blind as had been rumored but was not seeing properly either. He could see and identify human beings but could not properly see or read words and sentences typed or written on a book or paper. According medical officials at the hospital, the school prefect had a heart problem; the boy's heart was failing. And due to the heart condition, the body organs including the eyes were not functioning properly. They said there was nothing wrong with the eyes. If the heart condition were rectified, the vision would be restored.
This medical center has limited facilities to diagnose and treat heart related problems so there are plans to refer him to hospitals with better equipment and specialists in Kumasi or Accra for a second opinion. The family of the boy is poor and needs financial assistance to carry out further medical examination.
Meanwhile Roda has dropped out of school. She is currently staying with her parents in the village. They are worried that she might be harmed due to the witchcraft accusation. It took a lot of negotiation for the parents and the elders in the community to allow me to see and interview her. I was questioned about my mission and cleared by chiefs in two different communities before I was able to meet with her. Finally I was allowed to visit Roda in her village.
Roda said she stopped attending school because she could no longer move and interact freely in the community. In the school and on the streets, people jeered at her calling her a witch. And in the school, students made caricatures of her. Some were afraid of coming close to her. Others attributed any slight scratch or bruise on their body to her ‘witch chopping’ scheme. She said she felt miserable and unsafe because the family and friends of the school prefect were angry with her. They believed she made him ‘blind’ and prevented him from taking the BECE. She and her parents have moved to another village where she is currently staying. But the witchcraft allegation has followed her.
Roda’s parents said following the accusation, they decided to withdraw her from the school so that she could marry, a plan I vehemently opposed. But they worried that it would be difficult to find her another school within the area because of the stigma of witchcraft accusation. Only after persistent persuasion did the parents pledge to send her to the regional capital, Tamale, so that she could continue her education there. I had pressured them into making this promise. In the future I will have to monitor the situation to see if they have fulfilled this pledge.
If efforts are not made to support her, the girl will lose her education to an accusation of witchcraft. She is one of many.
Leo Igwe is a skeptical activist in Nigeria and a former representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. He is partnering with the JREF to respond in a more organized and grassroots way to the growing superstitious beliefs about witchcraft throughout the continent of Africa.
Child witch hunts in contemporary Ghana. Adnkrah M1
Abstract
Child Abuse Negl. 2011 Sep;35(9):741-52. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2011.05.011. Epub 2011 Sep 22.
Author information
Child witch hunts in contemporary Ghana.
Adinkrah M1.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
The persecution of children as witches has received widespread reportage in the international mass media. In recent years, hundreds of children have been killed, maimed and abandoned across Africa based on individual and village-level accusations of witchcraft. Despite the media focus, to date, very little systematic study has investigated the phenomenon. In this case study, the persecution of child witches in Ghana is studied to explore the nature and patterns of witch hunts against children in the West African nation.
METHODS:
There are no reliable national data on child abuse related to witchcraft accusations in Ghana. For this study, 13 cases of child witch hunts appearing in the local media during 1994-2009 were analyzed. Case summaries were constructed for each incident to help identify the socio-demographic characteristics of assailants and victims, victim-offender relationships, the methods of attacks, the spatial characteristics, as well as the motivations for the attacks.
RESULTS:
Children branded as witches ranged in age from 1-month-old to 17-years-old, were primarily from poor backgrounds, and lived in rural areas of the country. Accusations of witchcraft and witch assaults were lodged by close family members often through the encouragement of, or in concert with Christian clergymen and fetish priests. Accused witches were physically brutalized, tortured, neglected, and in two cases, murdered. For school-aged children, imputations of witchcraft contributed to stigmatization in both the community and at school, resulting in dropping out. The most frequently expressed reason for persecution of the child was suspicion that the child had used witchcraft to cause the death or illness of family relations or someone in the community. Another reason was suspicion that the child was responsible for the business failure or financial difficulties of a perceived victim.
CONCLUSIONS:
The results of this research are consistent with findings in the witchcraft literature suggesting that seemingly inexplicable illnesses, untimely deaths, and financial hardships tend to be the major causal forces generating witch hunts. Additional research is necessary to further shed light on child witch hunts in Ghana and other countries.
PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS:
To reduce the incidence of such abuse, there is a need for increased advocacy and protections for children in the society. The government must also increase the penalties for child abuse. This will serve as a deterrent to potential offenders. Additionally, through public service campaigns, educating citizens about the causes and trajectories of diseases, will lead to a significant diminution of witchcraft accusations and the associated violence.
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Child Abuse Negl. 2011 Sep;35(9):741-52. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2011.05.011. Epub 2011 Sep 22.
Author information
Child witch hunts in contemporary Ghana.
Adinkrah M1.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
The persecution of children as witches has received widespread reportage in the international mass media. In recent years, hundreds of children have been killed, maimed and abandoned across Africa based on individual and village-level accusations of witchcraft. Despite the media focus, to date, very little systematic study has investigated the phenomenon. In this case study, the persecution of child witches in Ghana is studied to explore the nature and patterns of witch hunts against children in the West African nation.
METHODS:
There are no reliable national data on child abuse related to witchcraft accusations in Ghana. For this study, 13 cases of child witch hunts appearing in the local media during 1994-2009 were analyzed. Case summaries were constructed for each incident to help identify the socio-demographic characteristics of assailants and victims, victim-offender relationships, the methods of attacks, the spatial characteristics, as well as the motivations for the attacks.
RESULTS:
Children branded as witches ranged in age from 1-month-old to 17-years-old, were primarily from poor backgrounds, and lived in rural areas of the country. Accusations of witchcraft and witch assaults were lodged by close family members often through the encouragement of, or in concert with Christian clergymen and fetish priests. Accused witches were physically brutalized, tortured, neglected, and in two cases, murdered. For school-aged children, imputations of witchcraft contributed to stigmatization in both the community and at school, resulting in dropping out. The most frequently expressed reason for persecution of the child was suspicion that the child had used witchcraft to cause the death or illness of family relations or someone in the community. Another reason was suspicion that the child was responsible for the business failure or financial difficulties of a perceived victim.
CONCLUSIONS:
The results of this research are consistent with findings in the witchcraft literature suggesting that seemingly inexplicable illnesses, untimely deaths, and financial hardships tend to be the major causal forces generating witch hunts. Additional research is necessary to further shed light on child witch hunts in Ghana and other countries.
PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS:
To reduce the incidence of such abuse, there is a need for increased advocacy and protections for children in the society. The government must also increase the penalties for child abuse. This will serve as a deterrent to potential offenders. Additionally, through public service campaigns, educating citizens about the causes and trajectories of diseases, will lead to a significant diminution of witchcraft accusations and the associated violence.
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Self-styled pastor brands minors as witches, abuses them
Self-styled pastor brands minors as witches, abuses them Source: Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | NSA Date: 11-08-2015 Time: 07:08:42:am
Some teenage girls at Bomase, a village in the Upper Manya Krobo district of the Eastern Region have been forced to drop out of school after they were branded witches by a self-styled pastor.
The yet-to-be-identified pastor has blamed the death of some of the residents in the community on the minors. The pastor who is believed to be in his twenties sends these girls - mostly between the ages of 12 and 14 - to a hill top to pray and deliver them from their witchcraft, physically abusing them in the process. During this process he lashes them, leaving marks on their bodies.
Joy News’ Beatrice Adu was in the community and reports that parents of these girls believe in the self-styled pastor, and send their daughters to the hill top for the ‘evil spirit’ they have to be exorcized. A worried member of the community Mary Agbetor told Beatrice the development is a clear abuse of the girls' rights. “I am worried, I was informed that a young pastor in the village was accusing the girls of being witches, killing people and the hitherto peaceful community has been divided into factions of witches and wizards.
“This is affecting the girls in school. How can a pastor accuse girls of being witches and bring them into a bush to exorcise them”, she queried. Mary says the girls are often forced to confess that they are witches. One of the girls, Dede was badly beaten by the pastor last week when she refused to say she was a witch.
Marks left at Dede's back after she was lashed by the pastor when she refused to confess that she was a witch. Dede said she refused to say she was a witch because she is not and although she told her parent about it, they did nothing. One of the residents, Emmanuel Nartey Agbotey, supports the activities of the pastor. He told Beatrice one of the girls killed his wife just after she gave birth to their child. The pastor, upon seeing the TV crew run into the bush. Some women who were at the church when Beatrice and her crew visited the community also refused to speak about the issue.
Source: myjoyonline- http://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2015/August-11th/self-styled-pastor-abuses-teenage-girls-brands-them-witches.
Some teenage girls at Bomase, a village in the Upper Manya Krobo district of the Eastern Region have been forced to drop out of school after they were branded witches by a self-styled pastor.
The yet-to-be-identified pastor has blamed the death of some of the residents in the community on the minors. The pastor who is believed to be in his twenties sends these girls - mostly between the ages of 12 and 14 - to a hill top to pray and deliver them from their witchcraft, physically abusing them in the process. During this process he lashes them, leaving marks on their bodies.
Joy News’ Beatrice Adu was in the community and reports that parents of these girls believe in the self-styled pastor, and send their daughters to the hill top for the ‘evil spirit’ they have to be exorcized. A worried member of the community Mary Agbetor told Beatrice the development is a clear abuse of the girls' rights. “I am worried, I was informed that a young pastor in the village was accusing the girls of being witches, killing people and the hitherto peaceful community has been divided into factions of witches and wizards.
“This is affecting the girls in school. How can a pastor accuse girls of being witches and bring them into a bush to exorcise them”, she queried. Mary says the girls are often forced to confess that they are witches. One of the girls, Dede was badly beaten by the pastor last week when she refused to say she was a witch.
Marks left at Dede's back after she was lashed by the pastor when she refused to confess that she was a witch. Dede said she refused to say she was a witch because she is not and although she told her parent about it, they did nothing. One of the residents, Emmanuel Nartey Agbotey, supports the activities of the pastor. He told Beatrice one of the girls killed his wife just after she gave birth to their child. The pastor, upon seeing the TV crew run into the bush. Some women who were at the church when Beatrice and her crew visited the community also refused to speak about the issue.
Source: myjoyonline- http://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2015/August-11th/self-styled-pastor-abuses-teenage-girls-brands-them-witches.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Farmer Grabbed For Defiling 13-Year-Old Girl
January 17, 2013
Akwesi Appiah, 23, was on Wednesday remanded in police custody by a Cape Coast Circuit Court for defiling a thirteen year-old girl.
He pleaded not guilty and would be re-arraigned on Tuesday January 22.
Police Inspector Christiana Sampong told the court presided over by Mrs Florence Kai Otu that on the morning of Saturday December 1, the complainant, Mr Matthew Koomson also a farmer and a drinking bar operator at Assin Betwease, traveled with his wife to a funeral leaving the victim and her siblings at home.
She said at about 7:00 pm Appiah who lives in the same neighborhood with Mr Koomson, went to purchase some local gin and noticed that Mr Koomson and his wife had not returned from their trip.
Inspector Sampong said Appiah then took advantage of the situation to lure the victim into his house and had sexual intercourse with her.
She said when the couple returned home around 21:00 hours they had a hint that Appiah had taken the victim to his house and Mr Koomson rushed to Appiah’s room and found his daughter half naked and took her home.
When questioned at home the girl disclosed to her father the ordeal she went through in the hands of Appiah and the case was reported to the police.
Source: GNA
Akwesi Appiah, 23, was on Wednesday remanded in police custody by a Cape Coast Circuit Court for defiling a thirteen year-old girl.
He pleaded not guilty and would be re-arraigned on Tuesday January 22.
Police Inspector Christiana Sampong told the court presided over by Mrs Florence Kai Otu that on the morning of Saturday December 1, the complainant, Mr Matthew Koomson also a farmer and a drinking bar operator at Assin Betwease, traveled with his wife to a funeral leaving the victim and her siblings at home.
She said at about 7:00 pm Appiah who lives in the same neighborhood with Mr Koomson, went to purchase some local gin and noticed that Mr Koomson and his wife had not returned from their trip.
Inspector Sampong said Appiah then took advantage of the situation to lure the victim into his house and had sexual intercourse with her.
She said when the couple returned home around 21:00 hours they had a hint that Appiah had taken the victim to his house and Mr Koomson rushed to Appiah’s room and found his daughter half naked and took her home.
When questioned at home the girl disclosed to her father the ordeal she went through in the hands of Appiah and the case was reported to the police.
Source: GNA
Father In Custody For Defiling Daughter
February 11, 2013
The Agona Swedru Circuit Court has remanded in custody a 38-year-old machine operator on charges of incest and defilement.
Nana Evans Acquah, who pleaded not guilty, was remanded by the court, presided over by Mr N.K.E.Osam, to re-appear before it on February 28, 2013.
The suspect was arrested by the police for allegedly defiling his 14-year-old daughter.
The suspect, who resides at Woraba Estate, a suburb of Agona Swedru, is reported to have defiled his daughter (name withheld), a primary four pupil, on a number of occasions when the daughter visited him to collect money for school.
The victim is said to be residing with her mother at Desuenim also in Swedru.
Confirming the incident to the Daily Graphic, the Swedru Divisional Police Crime Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr Kennedy Edusei, said the victim claimed that the father had been defiling her since August, 2012.
He said the victim said her father often defiled her in the room after giving her GHc2 as upkeep money for school.
Mr Edusei said on January 27, 2013, the victim, who was bleeding profusely, fell sick and was taken to the Swedru Government Hospital for medical attention by her mother, Madam Grace Appiah.
He said it was after examination by the medical officer that it was detected that the victim had been defiled several times with bruises around her private parts.
Mr Edusei said Upon interrogation, the victim mentioned her father as having defiled her on three occasions since August, 2012 anytime she visited him to collect money and subsequently warned her not to mention it to anybody else he would scold her.
He explained that due to the threat by her father, the victim claimed she was afraid to inform anybody about her ordeal, not even to her mother, until she was taken ill and her mother took her to the hospital.
The Crime Officer said the suspect, however, denied the offence in his caution statement to the police.
He further stated that the suspect would be charged with incest and defilement and put before court.
The Agona Swedru Circuit Court has remanded in custody a 38-year-old machine operator on charges of incest and defilement.
Nana Evans Acquah, who pleaded not guilty, was remanded by the court, presided over by Mr N.K.E.Osam, to re-appear before it on February 28, 2013.
The suspect was arrested by the police for allegedly defiling his 14-year-old daughter.
The suspect, who resides at Woraba Estate, a suburb of Agona Swedru, is reported to have defiled his daughter (name withheld), a primary four pupil, on a number of occasions when the daughter visited him to collect money for school.
The victim is said to be residing with her mother at Desuenim also in Swedru.
Confirming the incident to the Daily Graphic, the Swedru Divisional Police Crime Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr Kennedy Edusei, said the victim claimed that the father had been defiling her since August, 2012.
He said the victim said her father often defiled her in the room after giving her GHc2 as upkeep money for school.
Mr Edusei said on January 27, 2013, the victim, who was bleeding profusely, fell sick and was taken to the Swedru Government Hospital for medical attention by her mother, Madam Grace Appiah.
He said it was after examination by the medical officer that it was detected that the victim had been defiled several times with bruises around her private parts.
Mr Edusei said Upon interrogation, the victim mentioned her father as having defiled her on three occasions since August, 2012 anytime she visited him to collect money and subsequently warned her not to mention it to anybody else he would scold her.
He explained that due to the threat by her father, the victim claimed she was afraid to inform anybody about her ordeal, not even to her mother, until she was taken ill and her mother took her to the hospital.
The Crime Officer said the suspect, however, denied the offence in his caution statement to the police.
He further stated that the suspect would be charged with incest and defilement and put before court.
Teacher, 25 defiles 5-year-old pupil
Gbawe:
Posted on January 18, 2014
Nana Yaw LarbiA 25-year-old teacher has been arrested by the Odorkor Police for allegedly defiling a five-year-old pupil.
The suspect, Nana Yaw Addo Larbi, popularly called Sir Larbi, was said to have defiled the pupil in the washroom of a school at Gbawe in Accra on Tuesday, January 14, 2014.
Even though the victim is a pupil of the school where Sir Larbi teaches, he is not her class teacher.
Confirming the case to the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Odorkor District Police Commander, Superintendent of Police Mr Abraham Acquaye, said the victim’s parents reported the case to the police after they had sought medical attention for their daughter who had bled from her private parts on that fateful Tuesday.
The victim was in the school with other pupils who were waiting after school hours for a school bus to send them home.
The commander said the victim told a medical doctor that a teacher called Sir Larbi forcibly had sex with her in the washroom.
She said Sir Larbi had followed her to the washroom when she went to urinate in the course of waiting for the school bus.
That was after the victim had refused to disclose to her parents and other relations who had questioned her after seeing blood in her panties what had happened to her.
The girl is said to have told the doctor that the teacher had threatened to give her 24 lashes if she disclosed what had happened to anybody.
About 5 p.m. on that Tuesday, when the girl got home, she told her mother that she wanted to wash her panties while a relative was washing their dirty clothes.
Even though the mother protested, the relative asked the girl to go ahead and wash her panties.
“It was when she removed her panties to wash that her mother and the other relative noticed that the panties were soaked with blood,” Mr Acquaye said.
An examination of the victim’s private parts revealed that she had clots of blood oozing out.
She was quickly rushed to a nearby private clinic, where she confided in the doctor who examined her that she had been defiled by one Sir Larbi.
As a result of the nature of her condition, the doctor referred the victim to the Police Hospital for further treatment.
Mr Acquaye said the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit of the Odorkor Police had concluded its investigations and would process the suspect for court on Tuesday, January 21, 2014.
Source: Graphic Online
Posted on January 18, 2014
Nana Yaw LarbiA 25-year-old teacher has been arrested by the Odorkor Police for allegedly defiling a five-year-old pupil.
The suspect, Nana Yaw Addo Larbi, popularly called Sir Larbi, was said to have defiled the pupil in the washroom of a school at Gbawe in Accra on Tuesday, January 14, 2014.
Even though the victim is a pupil of the school where Sir Larbi teaches, he is not her class teacher.
Confirming the case to the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Odorkor District Police Commander, Superintendent of Police Mr Abraham Acquaye, said the victim’s parents reported the case to the police after they had sought medical attention for their daughter who had bled from her private parts on that fateful Tuesday.
The victim was in the school with other pupils who were waiting after school hours for a school bus to send them home.
The commander said the victim told a medical doctor that a teacher called Sir Larbi forcibly had sex with her in the washroom.
She said Sir Larbi had followed her to the washroom when she went to urinate in the course of waiting for the school bus.
That was after the victim had refused to disclose to her parents and other relations who had questioned her after seeing blood in her panties what had happened to her.
The girl is said to have told the doctor that the teacher had threatened to give her 24 lashes if she disclosed what had happened to anybody.
About 5 p.m. on that Tuesday, when the girl got home, she told her mother that she wanted to wash her panties while a relative was washing their dirty clothes.
Even though the mother protested, the relative asked the girl to go ahead and wash her panties.
“It was when she removed her panties to wash that her mother and the other relative noticed that the panties were soaked with blood,” Mr Acquaye said.
An examination of the victim’s private parts revealed that she had clots of blood oozing out.
She was quickly rushed to a nearby private clinic, where she confided in the doctor who examined her that she had been defiled by one Sir Larbi.
As a result of the nature of her condition, the doctor referred the victim to the Police Hospital for further treatment.
Mr Acquaye said the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit of the Odorkor Police had concluded its investigations and would process the suspect for court on Tuesday, January 21, 2014.
Source: Graphic Online
Monday, August 10, 2015
Man, 51 Defiles Girl, 10
Posted on January 18, 2015
A 51-year-Old farmer, John Mensah aka Kwame Atta, has been arrested by the Kasoa police for allegedly defiling a 10- year-old class three pupil.
The suspect is said to have enticed the victim, a pupil of the Bontrase Roman Catholic Primary School in the Awutu Senya District of the Central Region, with 50Gp and coconuts before luring her into his farm to allegedly defile her.
“He gave me 50Gp for the first time and the sixth time GH¢1 and two coconuts,” said the victim.
The incident, according to police preliminary investigations, had happened more than five times.
DSP Florence Anaman, Commander of the Kasoa Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, where the suspect is being held, said after his arrest Kwame Atta pleaded guilty to the offence of defilement.
The Kasoa DOVVSU boss said the suspect claimed the act had occurred only five times.
However, the victim’s account indicated it was more.
DSP Anaman said the victim told her grandmother about what Kwame Atta had been doing to her, but she was told he must be caught in the act before anything could be done about it.
She said the victim, therefore, asked her brother to follow her when she was going to fetch water and unluckily for Kwame Atta, he called her to repeat the heinous crime again, according to DSP Anaman.
The victim’s brother who was hiding a few meters away from Kwame Atta’s room, the police officer revealed, managed to catch him (Atta) in the act yesterday.
He raised an alarm and Kwame Atta was apprehended by the police.
The Kasoa DOVVSU Commander said he would be processed for court soon to face the law.
Source: Daily Guide
42-Year-Old Man Defiles Girl,12
Takoradi:
Posted on May 30, 2013
A 42-year-old Caterer, Michael Ofosu, was on Tuesday remanded into prison custody for allegedly defiling a 12-year-old girl by a Takoradi Circuit Court.
He pleaded not guilty and would re-appear on May 30.
The court also charged Madam Irene Acheampong, a teacher who is the Aunt of the accused and Emmanuel Badioo, a 49-year-old farmer and father of the victim for complicity.
Giving the facts of the case, Police Chief Inspector Felix Danku told the court presided over by Mr Charles Bamfo Nimako that the complainant, Baidoo and his family reside in the same house with Ofosu at Fijai Hills in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis.
He said on March 6, Ofosu took advantage of the absence of the victim’s parents and sent her on an errand, and after delivering the item; Ofosu lured her into his room and forcibly had sex with her.
The prosecution said after defiling her, Ofosu used a white handkerchief and wiped the semen and the victim’s blood and threatened her not to disclose the incident to her parents, and left the town.
He said on March 9, parents of the victim noticed unusual signs on their daughter and upon examination, they noticed that her vagina was swollen with whitish discharge.
Chief Inspector Danku said her parents took her to a clinic for treatment; and it was at the health facility that she narrated her ordeal.
The father of the victim reported the case to the Adiembra Police and a medical form was issued to them to take her to hospital for medical examination.
After the examination, the medical report confirmed that the girl had been defiled.
The prosecutor said the victim’s father confronted the accused, but he denied the crime however Ofosu’s mother called for an amicable settlement of the case.
He said on March 14, the accused aunt gave GH¢650.00 to appease the victim’s family.
However, the prosecution said on April 3, the victim’s father, not satisfied with the compensation, reported the case to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit at Sekondi and Ofosu was arrested.
Source: GNA
Posted on May 30, 2013
A 42-year-old Caterer, Michael Ofosu, was on Tuesday remanded into prison custody for allegedly defiling a 12-year-old girl by a Takoradi Circuit Court.
He pleaded not guilty and would re-appear on May 30.
The court also charged Madam Irene Acheampong, a teacher who is the Aunt of the accused and Emmanuel Badioo, a 49-year-old farmer and father of the victim for complicity.
Giving the facts of the case, Police Chief Inspector Felix Danku told the court presided over by Mr Charles Bamfo Nimako that the complainant, Baidoo and his family reside in the same house with Ofosu at Fijai Hills in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis.
He said on March 6, Ofosu took advantage of the absence of the victim’s parents and sent her on an errand, and after delivering the item; Ofosu lured her into his room and forcibly had sex with her.
The prosecution said after defiling her, Ofosu used a white handkerchief and wiped the semen and the victim’s blood and threatened her not to disclose the incident to her parents, and left the town.
He said on March 9, parents of the victim noticed unusual signs on their daughter and upon examination, they noticed that her vagina was swollen with whitish discharge.
Chief Inspector Danku said her parents took her to a clinic for treatment; and it was at the health facility that she narrated her ordeal.
The father of the victim reported the case to the Adiembra Police and a medical form was issued to them to take her to hospital for medical examination.
After the examination, the medical report confirmed that the girl had been defiled.
The prosecutor said the victim’s father confronted the accused, but he denied the crime however Ofosu’s mother called for an amicable settlement of the case.
He said on March 14, the accused aunt gave GH¢650.00 to appease the victim’s family.
However, the prosecution said on April 3, the victim’s father, not satisfied with the compensation, reported the case to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit at Sekondi and Ofosu was arrested.
Source: GNA
Teacher Trainee Caught Abusing 15-year-old Pupil
Central Region: Posted on October 6, 2013
Emmanuel Ampem, 22, (a teacher trainee) has found himself at the wrong side of the law for allegedly sexually abusing a 15-year-old pupil in a school library at Kasoa in the Central Region.
Ampem reportedly had sex with the girl on four different occasions and had she not played truant after the fourth encounter, to prompt a grilling from her stepfather, Ampem would probably not have been found out.
On Ampem’s appearance before the Agona Swedru Circuit Court, he denied the charge of defilement and the court remanded him in prison custody until October 15.
According to Inspector S. Opoku-Mensah, the victim (named withheld) lives with her stepfather, Mr Benjamin Ofosuhene, at Brigade, a suburb of Kasoa. She is a pupil of the school where Ampem teaches.
Inspector S. Opoku Mensah said Ampem asked the victim on July 10, 2013 to use her own money to buy him a sachet of water and toffees.
The prosecutor said when the victim brought the items, Ampem asked her to wait for him in the library.
He said on entering the library, Ampem started caressing the victim, after which he asked her to bend down. He then pulled down her panties and had sex with her.
Inspector Opoku-Mensah said after the act, the victim came out of the library and invited one Angela to accompany her to the washroom where they noticed some bloodstains in the victim’s panties.
On July 22 and 23, 2013, the prosecutor said, the victim refused to go to school for no apparent reason, and this prompted her stepfather to question her until she narrated the sexual encounters with Ampem.
Inspector Opoku Mensah said Mr Ofosuhene made a report to the police, which led to the arrest of Ampem.
Source: Daily Graphic
Emmanuel Ampem, 22, (a teacher trainee) has found himself at the wrong side of the law for allegedly sexually abusing a 15-year-old pupil in a school library at Kasoa in the Central Region.
Ampem reportedly had sex with the girl on four different occasions and had she not played truant after the fourth encounter, to prompt a grilling from her stepfather, Ampem would probably not have been found out.
On Ampem’s appearance before the Agona Swedru Circuit Court, he denied the charge of defilement and the court remanded him in prison custody until October 15.
According to Inspector S. Opoku-Mensah, the victim (named withheld) lives with her stepfather, Mr Benjamin Ofosuhene, at Brigade, a suburb of Kasoa. She is a pupil of the school where Ampem teaches.
Inspector S. Opoku Mensah said Ampem asked the victim on July 10, 2013 to use her own money to buy him a sachet of water and toffees.
The prosecutor said when the victim brought the items, Ampem asked her to wait for him in the library.
He said on entering the library, Ampem started caressing the victim, after which he asked her to bend down. He then pulled down her panties and had sex with her.
Inspector Opoku-Mensah said after the act, the victim came out of the library and invited one Angela to accompany her to the washroom where they noticed some bloodstains in the victim’s panties.
On July 22 and 23, 2013, the prosecutor said, the victim refused to go to school for no apparent reason, and this prompted her stepfather to question her until she narrated the sexual encounters with Ampem.
Inspector Opoku Mensah said Mr Ofosuhene made a report to the police, which led to the arrest of Ampem.
Source: Daily Graphic
SDA Pastor Allegedly Defiles 14-Year-Old Pupil
Posted on January 23, 2015
A 27-year-old associate pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church was on Tuesday remanded into police custody by a Cape Coast Circuit Court for allegedly defiling a 14- year-old girl at Ekumfi Eyisam in the Ekumfi District.
The court, which sat in camera, did not take the plea of Pastor Joseph Wiredu Mensah who had been charged with defilement and adjourned the case to January 30.
Police Inspector Samuel Amoako told the court presided over by Mr. Kofi Seshie Ametewee that the mother of the victim, a trader, lives at Ekumfi Eyisam near Mankessim with her daughter.
He said in October last year, the girl’s mother pleaded with the pastor and his wife who is her class teacher to allow the girl to live with and serve them but he reluctantly accepted after the mother had insisted.
Inspector Amoako alleged that between November and December last year, Mensah had sexual intercourse with the victim on three occasions but the last encounter ended her at the hospital after she collapsed and this compelled the victim to tell her mother about her ordeal.
He said Mensah took the girl to the Saltpond Government Hospital where she was admitted, treated and discharged.
On hearing of the incident, the girl’s mother reported the issue to the police and Pastor Mensah was arrested.
According to Inspector Amoako, the pastor told the police that he took her to the Saltpond Government Hospital in the company of a colleague, where she was treated and discharged and that the girl had revealed to him that whilst she was living at Ashaiman she was defiled.
The pastor further alleged that the girl reported to him that someone attempted to defile her when she came to live with him and he was compelled to send the girl back to her mother when she started acting strangely.
Mr. Daniel Arthur, Counsel for Mensah prayed the court to grant his client bail but the application was denied.
Source: Graphic Online
A 27-year-old associate pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church was on Tuesday remanded into police custody by a Cape Coast Circuit Court for allegedly defiling a 14- year-old girl at Ekumfi Eyisam in the Ekumfi District.
The court, which sat in camera, did not take the plea of Pastor Joseph Wiredu Mensah who had been charged with defilement and adjourned the case to January 30.
Police Inspector Samuel Amoako told the court presided over by Mr. Kofi Seshie Ametewee that the mother of the victim, a trader, lives at Ekumfi Eyisam near Mankessim with her daughter.
He said in October last year, the girl’s mother pleaded with the pastor and his wife who is her class teacher to allow the girl to live with and serve them but he reluctantly accepted after the mother had insisted.
Inspector Amoako alleged that between November and December last year, Mensah had sexual intercourse with the victim on three occasions but the last encounter ended her at the hospital after she collapsed and this compelled the victim to tell her mother about her ordeal.
He said Mensah took the girl to the Saltpond Government Hospital where she was admitted, treated and discharged.
On hearing of the incident, the girl’s mother reported the issue to the police and Pastor Mensah was arrested.
According to Inspector Amoako, the pastor told the police that he took her to the Saltpond Government Hospital in the company of a colleague, where she was treated and discharged and that the girl had revealed to him that whilst she was living at Ashaiman she was defiled.
The pastor further alleged that the girl reported to him that someone attempted to defile her when she came to live with him and he was compelled to send the girl back to her mother when she started acting strangely.
Mr. Daniel Arthur, Counsel for Mensah prayed the court to grant his client bail but the application was denied.
Source: Graphic Online
Teacher In Court For Defiling Late Brother’s Daughter
Posted on February 15, 2013
Teacher in court for defiling late brother’s daughterA 53-year-old teacher, Stephen Donsah, appeared before a Fiapre Circuit Court, Brong Ahafo region for allegedly defiling her late brother’s daughter.
His plea was not taken but granted GHC 20,000 bail with two sureties to re-appear on March 8.
Police Chief Inspector Kingsley Baafi told the court presided over by Mr Benjamin Osei that a brother of the accused died sometime ago and his 10-year-old daughter was adopted by the couple and stayed in the same apartment with them.
Chief Inspector Baafi said the accused consistently defiled the girl and warned her not to mention it to anyone.
He said in January Donsah’s wife detected that the victim was pregnant and questioned her about the person responsible for the pregnancy.
The prosecutor said the victim narrated her ordeal but when she confronted her husband about the pregnancy he said he was not responsible.
Chief Inspector Baafi said the accused conspired with his sister and had the pregnancy aborted.
Chief Inspector Baafi said the complainant reported the matter to the Brong-Ahafo Regional DOVVSU in Sunyani following the accused person’s decision to neglect them and he was arrested.
Court Grants Bail to Grandparents Who Burnt Girl’s Buttocks
Posted on February 8, 2013
Court grants bail to grandparents who burnt girl's buttocksAn Accra Circuit Court Thursday granted a GH¢30,000.00 bail with three sureties to the grandparents of an 11-year-old girl whose buttocks were burnt because she wets her bed.
The grandparents – Christina Torkonu, 50, a fish monger, and James Agbamavo, 65, an electrician – pleaded not guilty to the charge of causing harm to the girl.
They are to reappear in court on March 5, 2013.
When the two appeared in court, their counsel, Mr Gohoho, pleaded with the presiding judge to grant the accused persons bail because of their ages.
According to him, the two did not commit the act intentionally, for which reason they should be granted bail.
But the presiding judge, Selina Agbemava, said the granting of bail was not dependent on ages.
The grandparents found themselves on the wrong side of the law after allegedly compelling their 11-year-old granddaughter, who is a bed wetter, to sit in a basin of hot water; an action which caused serious injuries to her buttocks and rendered her bedridden.
They were arrested by the police following a tip-off by an informant.
The facts of the case as presented by ASP Sarah Ekua Acquah are that the informant reported the incident on January 8, 2013 after the grandparents had kept the girl, a class three pupil in the room in an attempt to conceal the crime.
The police responded swiftly to the information and with the help of the informant managed to locate the house, where the two suspects were arrested.
During interrogation, Ms Torkonu confirmed to the police that they had, indeed, made their granddaughter to sit in the hot water.
She also confirmed that the girl sustained severe wounds and that she was in the room.
When Ms Torkonu brought out the victim, the police noticed that the victim could not walk nor sit.
The police said the injury was so bad that the victim struggled to attend to the call of nature.
ASP Acquah said the suspects were immediately arrested and the victim sent to the Police Hospital, where she is receiving medical attention.
Source: Daily Graphic
11-Year-Old Girl Forced To Sit on Hot Water Discharged From Hospital
Posted on February 9, 2013
11 year girl forced to sit on hot water as punishment discharged from hospitalAfter one month in hospital, the 11-year-old girl who was allegedly forced by her grandparents to sit on hot water as punishment for bedwetting, has been discharged from the Police Hospital.
She had severe burns and could not sit. News about her ordeal shocked many when the police rescued here from a room where the suspects had kept her for days.
She is very hearty and playful like any child of her age.
Coordinator of Network Against Child Abuse at the Police Hospital DSP Elvis Bawa Sadongo said the girl will be sent to her new foster parents.
Last Thursday her grandparents, Christiana Torkonoo, 50 and her husband 65-year old James Agbamavo were each granted Ghc 15,000 bail by a Circuit Court in Accra, with three sureties.
Presiding Judge, Sedina Agbemava adjourned the case to March 5 to enable the victim recover well to give her testimony in court.
Social Welfare Jumps to Aid of Girl Tortured by Granparents
Posted on January 11, 2013
Social Welfare jumps to aid of girl tortured by granparentsThe Social Welfare Department has promised to assist the 11-year-old girl, who was forced by her grandparents to sit in boiling water as punishment for chronic bed-wetting.
The stepmother of the little girl, Madam Christiana Torkono allegedly forced her to sit on boiling water.
Her grandfather James Agbamavo, made matters worse by going to purchase indelible ink to apply on the bruised buttocks and left her in a room for days until police rescued her on Tuesday, January 8, 2013.
The girl is said to be responding to treatment at the Police Hospital, after sustaining severe burns on her buttocks.
Director of Social Welfare Department, Stephen Adongo in an interview with Joy News said his outfit is conducting a background research on the victim, to determine how best to assist her.
Mr. Adongo revealed that the Department will foot the medical bills of the victim, who is currently on admission at the Police Hospital.
He added, should the need for rehabilitation arise, the Department will also take care of the cost.
The Director of Social Welfare Department added that they are also prepared to offer some psychological assistance to the grandparents, whose act the he described as abnormal.
https://233livenews.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/social-welfare-jumps-to-aid-of-girl-tortured-by-granparents/
Father Burns Daughter’s Buttocks and Genitals and Flees
Posted on April 28, 2013
Burn buttocksThe father of two year old girl has absconded after his attempts to cure her with boiling water left her with severe burns on her buttocks and genital parts.
The father, who is unidentified, is said to have held the little girl over boiling water to cure her of candidyasis.
But she fell into the hot water and sustained severe injuries. The young girl is currently at the 37 Military Hospital where she is receiving treatment. Doctors attending to the girl say she is responding to treatment.
Women’s rights group, WILDAF, which is assisting the mother of the girl to seek treatment, has condemned the father’s action.
Programme Coordinator Bernice Sam says his act constitutes abuse and negligence, for which he must be arrested.
She would however not ask for his imprisonment if found guilty. She suggested counseling for the man who is said to have fathered seven children with his wife.
Source: myjoyonline.com
Post found at: https://233livenews.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/father-burns-daughters-buttocks-and-genitals-and-flees/
Man, 80, defiles 11-year-old girl
Eastern Region:
Posted on December 4, 2013
An 80-year old water attendant, Paul Dewornu, has appeared before the Kade Magistrate’s Court for allegedly defiling an 11-year- old school girl.
His plea was not taken and was remanded in police custody to re-appear on December 05.
Police Inspector D.D.T Wayoe told the court that the victim was a class four pupil who lived with her mother at Frafra line, a suburb of Boadua where the accused also lived.
He said on October 13 at about 1900 hours, the accused sought permission from the girl’s mother to send her to buy something for him at a near-by store.
Inspector Wayoe said the girl spent more than 25 minutes before returning home.
He said the mother became suspicious and asked what had kept her so long but the girl did not say anything.
“The mother however kept on observing her daughter’s behaviour and saw changes in her walking, and more, she refused to take her evening meal,” he added.
According to Inspector Wayoe, the girl’s mother suspected something fishy and examinee her private parts where she found out that the girl had been abused sexually.
He said the girl revealed that she was lured by Dewornu into his bedroom after the errand, defiled her and gave her GH¢1.00.
A report was made to the police and Dewornu was arrested.
Source: GNA
reposted by: https://233livenews.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/eastern-region-man-80-defiles-11-year-old-girl/
Posted on December 4, 2013
An 80-year old water attendant, Paul Dewornu, has appeared before the Kade Magistrate’s Court for allegedly defiling an 11-year- old school girl.
His plea was not taken and was remanded in police custody to re-appear on December 05.
Police Inspector D.D.T Wayoe told the court that the victim was a class four pupil who lived with her mother at Frafra line, a suburb of Boadua where the accused also lived.
He said on October 13 at about 1900 hours, the accused sought permission from the girl’s mother to send her to buy something for him at a near-by store.
Inspector Wayoe said the girl spent more than 25 minutes before returning home.
He said the mother became suspicious and asked what had kept her so long but the girl did not say anything.
“The mother however kept on observing her daughter’s behaviour and saw changes in her walking, and more, she refused to take her evening meal,” he added.
According to Inspector Wayoe, the girl’s mother suspected something fishy and examinee her private parts where she found out that the girl had been abused sexually.
He said the girl revealed that she was lured by Dewornu into his bedroom after the errand, defiled her and gave her GH¢1.00.
A report was made to the police and Dewornu was arrested.
Source: GNA
reposted by: https://233livenews.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/eastern-region-man-80-defiles-11-year-old-girl/
Mother Burns 6 Year-old Daughter’s Fingers
A 26-year-old mother have been declared wanted by the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service at Kenken, a suburb of Techiman in the Brong Ahafo region, for burning the fingers of her 6-year-old daughter, Samzia Abass.
According to Adom News Reporter Agya Owusu, Alima Abass burned her daughter’s fingers after several cautions to stop sucking them were ignored by the 6-year-old.
A furious Alima forced her daughter’s fingers into a fire to teach her a lesson.
Samzia Abass’s fingers are now swollen with severe burns to the extent that she struggles to write. Father of the victim, Ibrahim Abass described the situation as very unfortunate.
https://233livenews.wordpress.com/2015/02/24/photo-mother-burns-6-year-old-daughters-fingers/
Woman burns fingers of 12 year old over white clay
December 19, 2012
By Joy News
A twelve year old girl had all her five fingers burnt after she ate white clay belonging to her auntie.
The victim, name withheld told Joy News' Upper West Regional correspondent Rafiq Salam that she was sweeping when she saw the white clay lying on the floor and she decided to take some.
Her untie, Anatu Ibrahim who is a student of the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies was said to have been angered by the action of her niece and with the assistance of her neighbor they dragged the 12 year old closer to a blazing fire and forcibly dipped her fingers into it.
The victim was rescued by other neighbors who quickly rushed her to the hospital and later reported the incident to the Wa office of Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU).
The victim said that was not the first time she had been mistreated by the suspect.
Meanwhile, Anatu Ibrahim has denied the allegations against her, saying the victim suffered the bruises on her fingers after a hot porridge accidentally poured on her hand.
The Wa DOVVSU says the suspect is on a police enquiry bail and expected to be arraigned before court on charges of harm and child abuse.
The victim is now being taken care of by a good Samaritan.
http://www.modernghana.com/news/436506/1/woman-burns-fingers-of-12-year-old-over-white-clay.html
By Joy News
A twelve year old girl had all her five fingers burnt after she ate white clay belonging to her auntie.
The victim, name withheld told Joy News' Upper West Regional correspondent Rafiq Salam that she was sweeping when she saw the white clay lying on the floor and she decided to take some.
Her untie, Anatu Ibrahim who is a student of the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies was said to have been angered by the action of her niece and with the assistance of her neighbor they dragged the 12 year old closer to a blazing fire and forcibly dipped her fingers into it.
The victim was rescued by other neighbors who quickly rushed her to the hospital and later reported the incident to the Wa office of Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU).
The victim said that was not the first time she had been mistreated by the suspect.
Meanwhile, Anatu Ibrahim has denied the allegations against her, saying the victim suffered the bruises on her fingers after a hot porridge accidentally poured on her hand.
The Wa DOVVSU says the suspect is on a police enquiry bail and expected to be arraigned before court on charges of harm and child abuse.
The victim is now being taken care of by a good Samaritan.
http://www.modernghana.com/news/436506/1/woman-burns-fingers-of-12-year-old-over-white-clay.html
Sunday, August 9, 2015
He bonked them’: Making light of rape in the West African media
‘He bonked them’: Making light of rape in the West African media
By Afua Hirsch/Guest Blogger — August 9, 2013
http://www.womenundersiegeproject.org/blog/entry/he-bonked-them-making-light-of-rape-in-the-west-african-media
Yvonne Ntiamoah, a resident in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, was driving her two daughters home when she heard something on a local radio station that she could simply not endure.
“The presenters were having a discussion about a 7-year-old girl who had been raped or, as they called it, ‘defiled,’” said Ntiamoah, a lecturer at Radford University in Ghana. “It was just so graphic; they were describing how the man had lured the little girl into his room; how he was on top of her, and then they began imitating the sound effects, imagining what it would have been like.”
“The tone was lighthearted,” Ntiamoah continued. “It was just horrible.”
The academic was so incensed that she drove to the studio of the radio station, which broadcasts in local Ghanaian language Twi, and made a formal complaint. “They said they would look into it,” Ntiamoah said. “But I think it would take continuous protests and complaints to get any change.”
In Ghana and other West African countries, radio, television, newspapers and other media often treat rape, even child rape, as lighthearted, even salacious stories.
For instance, the Ghanaian press recently featured a story about Joshua Drah, a medical student who raped at least 52 female patients under the pretext of carrying out abortions. It included a passage that read:
“Interestingly, the doctor slept with all the women without using a condom and he bonked them standing, while they lay haplessly on the operation bench.”
The story was accompanied by a cartoon-like image of a stethoscope wrapped around the words “Doctor! Doctor!” displayed in a humorous font, with one of the letters depicted as an open mouth with a tongue hanging out.
“The reporting of the [sic] Joshua Drah particularly stood out to me as an example of how blatant this problem is in Ghana,” said Nana Sekyiamah, a feminist writer and program officer at the African Women’s Development Fund, a Ghana-based NGO. “Journalists are seeing these incidents as sex—something salacious and scandalous that is going to bring a lot of attention to their website or newspaper. They are not seeing this as rape—a crime and an act of violation.
“To me, this stems from a hypocrisy within Ghanaian society where we have this conservative attitude toward sex, but we don’t even recognize when a sexual crime is being committed.”
Sexual assault and child rape are a serious problem in many West African countries. Poor policing practices, a lack of awareness among family members about how to deal with the trauma of sexual crimes, and poverty—which results in many children living and working on the streets of densely populated urban areas—have contributed to dramatic levels of under-reporting.
In Ghana about 1,000 children are raped each year, three times as many as adults, according to the government. While there has been a slight decrease in reported adult rape cases—with 271 cases reported in 2012 compared to 297 in 2011—there has been an increase in child rape cases, still referred to in the country as “defilement,” from 905 cases in 2011 to 1,022 in 2012, official figures show.
Child rights groups say that the real figure for both rape and child rape is as much as 90 percent higher and that the majority of cases are not reported.
“Sexual violence is a real problem here in Ghana. It’s very difficult to get specific data,” said Angela Dwamena-Aboagye, founder of the Ark Foundation, which works to protect women and children in the country.
“From the newspaper reports, from the cases we receive, and from the cases that reach the police, we know that that is an under-reported crime. And as a problem it is not being addressed properly, both in terms of prevention and prosecution,” Dwamena-Aboagye added.
The press also does not know how to report on crimes of sexualized violence. A senior print journalist, who did not want to be named, blamed the media’s difficulty with reporting rape and other crimes on two related issues: journalists’ training in Ghana and other West African countries, and the lack of awareness among editors.
“The reality is that journalists and editors are focused on selling papers, and sex sells,” said the journalist, who has called for more training on gender and reporting of criminal offences. “Newsrooms in Ghana are still very male-dominated and until there are a critical mass of women, or men who have been trained to approach these crimes with greater empathy, then this is a very difficult culture to change.
“Other countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone that have been through wars where rape was recognized as a problem have had to do a lot of work on this issue, but I feel there is a complacency in Ghana where we have not had such a brutal past but where this everyday ignorance still prevails,” the journalist said.
Ghanaian law has been relatively slow to adapt to modern views about rape and domestic violence. Marital rape in Ghana was criminalized only in 2007, under a new law that removed the presumption that married women had “perpetually” consented to sex while married.
Recent data on general levels of gender-based violence against women are scarce. A 2005 report based on 1998 data found that “violence is a reality for a substantial number of women” in Ghana, and that 72 percent of the respondents in a survey reported that wife beating was common. Of the male respondents in this study, 5 percent admitted to forcing their wives or girlfriends to have sex with them. “This happens when women request money from them and deny them sex in return,” the report found. “[Forced sex] is meant to settle the quarrel between them.”
The latest data from 2008 showed that 20 percent of women had experienced physical and/or sexualized violence from their partners in the last 12 months, according to a report by UN Women.
Judicial and other staff in the courts and criminal justice system hold discriminatory attitudes toward women, gender rights advocates say. This discourages female and child victims of violence from coming forward.
“The kind of attitude that many people, including reporters, have is that these crimes are ‘just’ a rape, and that it just means somebody [is] sleeping with another person,” said the Ark Foundation’s Dwamena-Aboagye. “They don’t understand the impact for many women and children that [this] is like a living death.”
One of the consequences of the flippancy with which sexualized crimes are reported in Ghana and other countries in the region is the exposure of victims, experts say. News websites in countries including Ghana, Senegal, and Nigeria frequently post pictures of the accused and, in some cases, video footage of the attack.
The Nigerian website talkofnaija.com posted the following headline last May: “Girl Now Pregnant Was Gang Raped at 11years [sic] By 20 Men [PICTURES].” This is a typical headline on this site, which features similar stories from West Africa and around the world.
Senior figures in the criminal justice system are beginning to make high-profile calls for a change in the way reporters deal with sexualized violence. Supreme Court of Appeal Justice Yaw Appau earlier this year cautioned journalists that their reporting of rape cases is exposing victims and compromising criminal proceedings.
The Ghanaian government has made some moves to increase awareness of sexualized and gender-based violence. In 1998, it established the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit. In 2007, despite a lukewarm reception from many MPs, Ghana’s parliament finally passed the Domestic Violence Act following intense lobbying by gender activists.
But little has been done to tackle the treatment of rape and sexualized violence in the national media. And in a region where many countries are becoming economic success stories, donors are becoming less interested in funding programs that seek to reform attitudes toward women and sexualized violence.
“Civil society organizations who do this work are very few and far between,” Dwamena-Aboagye said. “Donors are not interested in funding this kind of work any longer. They are interested in governance, oil and gas, consolidation of democracy, which is all fine, but they forget the social fallout—issues of the very poor, issues of children, of girls. So it makes it difficult to sustain work in this area.”
A version of this article first appeared in Good Governance Africa and was reproduced with permission of the author.
By Afua Hirsch/Guest Blogger — August 9, 2013
http://www.womenundersiegeproject.org/blog/entry/he-bonked-them-making-light-of-rape-in-the-west-african-media
Yvonne Ntiamoah, a resident in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, was driving her two daughters home when she heard something on a local radio station that she could simply not endure.
“The presenters were having a discussion about a 7-year-old girl who had been raped or, as they called it, ‘defiled,’” said Ntiamoah, a lecturer at Radford University in Ghana. “It was just so graphic; they were describing how the man had lured the little girl into his room; how he was on top of her, and then they began imitating the sound effects, imagining what it would have been like.”
“The tone was lighthearted,” Ntiamoah continued. “It was just horrible.”
The academic was so incensed that she drove to the studio of the radio station, which broadcasts in local Ghanaian language Twi, and made a formal complaint. “They said they would look into it,” Ntiamoah said. “But I think it would take continuous protests and complaints to get any change.”
In Ghana and other West African countries, radio, television, newspapers and other media often treat rape, even child rape, as lighthearted, even salacious stories.
For instance, the Ghanaian press recently featured a story about Joshua Drah, a medical student who raped at least 52 female patients under the pretext of carrying out abortions. It included a passage that read:
“Interestingly, the doctor slept with all the women without using a condom and he bonked them standing, while they lay haplessly on the operation bench.”
The story was accompanied by a cartoon-like image of a stethoscope wrapped around the words “Doctor! Doctor!” displayed in a humorous font, with one of the letters depicted as an open mouth with a tongue hanging out.
“The reporting of the [sic] Joshua Drah particularly stood out to me as an example of how blatant this problem is in Ghana,” said Nana Sekyiamah, a feminist writer and program officer at the African Women’s Development Fund, a Ghana-based NGO. “Journalists are seeing these incidents as sex—something salacious and scandalous that is going to bring a lot of attention to their website or newspaper. They are not seeing this as rape—a crime and an act of violation.
“To me, this stems from a hypocrisy within Ghanaian society where we have this conservative attitude toward sex, but we don’t even recognize when a sexual crime is being committed.”
Sexual assault and child rape are a serious problem in many West African countries. Poor policing practices, a lack of awareness among family members about how to deal with the trauma of sexual crimes, and poverty—which results in many children living and working on the streets of densely populated urban areas—have contributed to dramatic levels of under-reporting.
In Ghana about 1,000 children are raped each year, three times as many as adults, according to the government. While there has been a slight decrease in reported adult rape cases—with 271 cases reported in 2012 compared to 297 in 2011—there has been an increase in child rape cases, still referred to in the country as “defilement,” from 905 cases in 2011 to 1,022 in 2012, official figures show.
Child rights groups say that the real figure for both rape and child rape is as much as 90 percent higher and that the majority of cases are not reported.
“Sexual violence is a real problem here in Ghana. It’s very difficult to get specific data,” said Angela Dwamena-Aboagye, founder of the Ark Foundation, which works to protect women and children in the country.
“From the newspaper reports, from the cases we receive, and from the cases that reach the police, we know that that is an under-reported crime. And as a problem it is not being addressed properly, both in terms of prevention and prosecution,” Dwamena-Aboagye added.
The press also does not know how to report on crimes of sexualized violence. A senior print journalist, who did not want to be named, blamed the media’s difficulty with reporting rape and other crimes on two related issues: journalists’ training in Ghana and other West African countries, and the lack of awareness among editors.
“The reality is that journalists and editors are focused on selling papers, and sex sells,” said the journalist, who has called for more training on gender and reporting of criminal offences. “Newsrooms in Ghana are still very male-dominated and until there are a critical mass of women, or men who have been trained to approach these crimes with greater empathy, then this is a very difficult culture to change.
“Other countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone that have been through wars where rape was recognized as a problem have had to do a lot of work on this issue, but I feel there is a complacency in Ghana where we have not had such a brutal past but where this everyday ignorance still prevails,” the journalist said.
Ghanaian law has been relatively slow to adapt to modern views about rape and domestic violence. Marital rape in Ghana was criminalized only in 2007, under a new law that removed the presumption that married women had “perpetually” consented to sex while married.
Recent data on general levels of gender-based violence against women are scarce. A 2005 report based on 1998 data found that “violence is a reality for a substantial number of women” in Ghana, and that 72 percent of the respondents in a survey reported that wife beating was common. Of the male respondents in this study, 5 percent admitted to forcing their wives or girlfriends to have sex with them. “This happens when women request money from them and deny them sex in return,” the report found. “[Forced sex] is meant to settle the quarrel between them.”
The latest data from 2008 showed that 20 percent of women had experienced physical and/or sexualized violence from their partners in the last 12 months, according to a report by UN Women.
Judicial and other staff in the courts and criminal justice system hold discriminatory attitudes toward women, gender rights advocates say. This discourages female and child victims of violence from coming forward.
“The kind of attitude that many people, including reporters, have is that these crimes are ‘just’ a rape, and that it just means somebody [is] sleeping with another person,” said the Ark Foundation’s Dwamena-Aboagye. “They don’t understand the impact for many women and children that [this] is like a living death.”
One of the consequences of the flippancy with which sexualized crimes are reported in Ghana and other countries in the region is the exposure of victims, experts say. News websites in countries including Ghana, Senegal, and Nigeria frequently post pictures of the accused and, in some cases, video footage of the attack.
The Nigerian website talkofnaija.com posted the following headline last May: “Girl Now Pregnant Was Gang Raped at 11years [sic] By 20 Men [PICTURES].” This is a typical headline on this site, which features similar stories from West Africa and around the world.
Senior figures in the criminal justice system are beginning to make high-profile calls for a change in the way reporters deal with sexualized violence. Supreme Court of Appeal Justice Yaw Appau earlier this year cautioned journalists that their reporting of rape cases is exposing victims and compromising criminal proceedings.
The Ghanaian government has made some moves to increase awareness of sexualized and gender-based violence. In 1998, it established the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit. In 2007, despite a lukewarm reception from many MPs, Ghana’s parliament finally passed the Domestic Violence Act following intense lobbying by gender activists.
But little has been done to tackle the treatment of rape and sexualized violence in the national media. And in a region where many countries are becoming economic success stories, donors are becoming less interested in funding programs that seek to reform attitudes toward women and sexualized violence.
“Civil society organizations who do this work are very few and far between,” Dwamena-Aboagye said. “Donors are not interested in funding this kind of work any longer. They are interested in governance, oil and gas, consolidation of democracy, which is all fine, but they forget the social fallout—issues of the very poor, issues of children, of girls. So it makes it difficult to sustain work in this area.”
A version of this article first appeared in Good Governance Africa and was reproduced with permission of the author.
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Let’s Stop Defilement And Incest In Ghana !!!!!!!
Sunday, 01 January 2012 03:49
Let’s Stop Defilement And Incest In Ghana !!!!!!!
Hopefully my rather strong title for this week will not be edited away. I was going to start my piece this week with a nice poem I learnt in Class Four of the Ridge Church School. This poem has been re-ignited and keeps running through my mind, and it occurred as soon as I put down a date in my diary to meet with some teachers at the Ridge Church School last week. I was also going to write my last piece on the ‘is there child labour on cocoa farms in Ghana or not’ debate between The Minister of Women and Children and some researchers from the University of Ghana, Legon, that ensued last week. I have shelved all those stories because I read yet another disheartening defilement story from the Western region filed by the Ghana News Agency on February 25, 2006.
A Tarkwa Circuit Court has sentenced a 43 year old farmer, Kweku Tuah to 25 years imprisonment for impregnating his 18-year-old daughter who is presently seven months pregnant. According to the story, the convicted man and victim’s mother are no longer married. The accused took custody of the victim from her mother and started having sexual relations with her from age 13. He asked her not to disclose their relationship to anyone else. The Chronicle newspaper’s editorial of February 8 2006, discussed rape and defilement and asked for action to be stepped up in Ghana. That same issue of Chronicle reported a case from Swedru where a father has been accused of rape by his daughter, and this, she says, resulted in the birth of one of her four children. She has also accused him of defiling his daughter’s six-year–old daughter, his own granddaughter.
Apart from the Kwame Nkrumah vrs J.B. Danquah stories in the newspapers this weekend, there were some stories on rape and defilement. In the Spectator; a pastor is alleged to have cast a spell on a final year student of Odumase Secondary School. She had been sent to the pastor by her father because she suffered rheumatism and had been living with the pastor ever since. The Pastor asked her to stop going to school and her father sought the intervention of CHRAJ for the girl to be taken to the hospital for a pregnancy and HIV tests and for her to be removed from the Pastor’s residence. The Mirror of February 25 ‘from the Courts’ page reported two cases of defilement this week. An herbalist from Sunyani was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for defiling a 14-year-old-girl suffering from epilepsy. A farmer was also jailed 10 years for defiling a 15-year-old-girl after a wedding at Gomoa Tarkwa.
Statistics from the Ghana Police Service website indicates that reportage on defilement has increased since 1999. 154 cases were reported in 1999, 204 cases in 2001 and 509 cases in 2003. As at July 2005, 210 cases had been reported by the Unit in Accra alone and this was more than cases reported for the whole of Ghana in 2001. The Gender Centre in Accra conducted a Survey and found out that almost a fifth of girls and women interviewed said their first sexual experience was by force, this means they were raped. What does this tell us? Defilement of girls by some men in Ghana is a common occurrence and the criminalisation of this act of forcible penetrative sex of children under 16 years has not acted to deter some men from taking advantage of innocent vulnerable girls.
So what is defilement under our Criminal Code? A person, male or female will be found guilty of the offence of defilement under our laws if the prosecution can prove that the man or woman had sexual activity with a child less than sixteen years of age through natural or unnatural means. Natural sex is sexual intercourse the normal way as occurs between man and woman. An example of unnatural sex is sodomy that is, anal sex.
Under no circumstances, can a child in Ghana who is under 16 years of age have sex with anyone. If a man or woman has sex with a child under 16 years, all that is required by the Police is to ascertain by means of a medical report whether the child has had sex or not and then to prove that it was Mr B who had sex with the child. Consent is not an issue in this circumstance. An accused person cannot say that a girl was his girlfriend and she agreed to have sex with him. Once that girl is under 16 years she has no legal capacity to agree to have sex with anyone. Men please take note and try and ascertain the ages of your girlfriends if they appear to look young, otherwise you and be dragged to court for defilement.
If you are found guilty by the court the minimum sentence that will be handed down to you is seven years and the maximum is 25 years. The law fixing a minimum and maximum sentence for rape and defilement was passed in 1998. I have always taken legislators and the then Minister of Justice, Dr Obed Asamoah to task for fixing a maximum term of 25 years. If an HIV positive man defiles a girl who eventually becomes positive why should he be given the same sentence as an HIV negative man who has defiled a girl and why should he not receive a harsher sentence?
I will ask a few questions: what is the sentencing pattern for defilement? What was the basis for the judge in Sunyani to give the accused person 7seven years for defiling a 14-year –old epileptic girl, and then another judge in Swedru to give a farmer ten years for defiling a 15-year-old girl. Why is the law not acting as a deterrent? Why an upper limit of 25 years when some defilers should get life sentences? What policy framework exists at the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department and or the Department of Social Welfare to address repeat offenders? Is there a Public Register of Sex Offenders to help Police track and monitor offenders with previous sexual abuse convictions? Does the Attorney General have on his staff, child psychologists to interview and prepare children who have been defiled for criminal trials? Is the Attorney General aware such children have special needs during criminal trials that have to be addressed?
These are but a few questions for Mr Ayikwei Otoo, Minister of Justice. The children of Ghana need effective protection from defilement. I cannot stress this urgent need.
Read 9552 times Last modified on Saturday, 28 December 2013 17:42
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71 year old man rapes 17 year old
KONONGO) ASANTE AKIM NORTH:
71 year old man rapes 17 year old
The Juaso Circuit Court has remanded a 71 year-old farmer into prison custody for allegedly raping his 17 year-old grand daughter at Konongo.
Peter Kwaku Poku, whose plea was not taken, was initially charged with canal knowledge of the victim when he first appeared before the court, and had since been remanded on several occasions in connection with the case.
However, when he appeared in court on Monday, an advice from the Attorney General’s Department preferred a charge of rape against him and will therefore re-appear before the court on March 9.
Police Chief Inspector Stephen Opare, prosecuting, told the court presided over by Justice Jacob Boon, sitting as an additional circuit court judge that the victim was the grand daughter of the accused and they both lived in the same vicinity.
He said on February 17, last year Poku was in his room watching television when the victim entered to join him.
Moments later, Poku dragged the victim onto his bed and forcibly had sex with her after which he cautioned her to remain silent.
The victim however, informed her mother who took her to the police station where a medical form was issued for the victim to attend hospital.
The form was later returned to the police duly endorsed, and the police arrested the accused.
GNA [2009-02-24 08:37:54]
71 year old man rapes 17 year old
The Juaso Circuit Court has remanded a 71 year-old farmer into prison custody for allegedly raping his 17 year-old grand daughter at Konongo.
Peter Kwaku Poku, whose plea was not taken, was initially charged with canal knowledge of the victim when he first appeared before the court, and had since been remanded on several occasions in connection with the case.
However, when he appeared in court on Monday, an advice from the Attorney General’s Department preferred a charge of rape against him and will therefore re-appear before the court on March 9.
Police Chief Inspector Stephen Opare, prosecuting, told the court presided over by Justice Jacob Boon, sitting as an additional circuit court judge that the victim was the grand daughter of the accused and they both lived in the same vicinity.
He said on February 17, last year Poku was in his room watching television when the victim entered to join him.
Moments later, Poku dragged the victim onto his bed and forcibly had sex with her after which he cautioned her to remain silent.
The victim however, informed her mother who took her to the police station where a medical form was issued for the victim to attend hospital.
The form was later returned to the police duly endorsed, and the police arrested the accused.
GNA [2009-02-24 08:37:54]
Man rapes daughter
Man rapes daughter
27/3/2010
A 44-year-old plumber from Menzkrom has been
arrested by the Dansoman branch of the Domestic
Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the
Ghana Police Service for reportedly having a
series of wild sexual bouts with his 15-year-old
daughter.
Suspect William Sakyie was said to have started
engaging his daughter in the incestuous affair
when she was 13 years.
With beatings and threats that he would no longer
take care of the victim’s educational needs, the
incest father, according to a family member, was
able to get away with it until February 10 2010,
when he was arrested.
According to a family source, the suspect took
custody of the victim from the mother when she was
only one and a half years old.
William started his sexual advances towards the
victim after the divorce with his second wife, the
source intimated, stressing that the suspect often
beat the victim and denied her feeding fee
whenever she resisted him.
The source averred that the victim finally
reported the matter to the police when she could
no longer bear the abuse.
Narrating the incident to the paper, the victim
said William Sakyie, after the day's work, often
mounted her every night while she was sleeping.
She said, "I kept the matter to myself until
February 10, 2010. My father, after work, pounced
on me that night as usual, to have sex with me and
when I refused, he gave me some beatings and
finally succeeded in sleeping with me.'"
Confirming the story, the Public Relations officer
of DOVVSU, Inspector Irene Opong, indicated that
the victim had been given a form for medical
examination whilst the suspect was being prepared
for court.
Source - Daily Guide
27/3/2010
A 44-year-old plumber from Menzkrom has been
arrested by the Dansoman branch of the Domestic
Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the
Ghana Police Service for reportedly having a
series of wild sexual bouts with his 15-year-old
daughter.
Suspect William Sakyie was said to have started
engaging his daughter in the incestuous affair
when she was 13 years.
With beatings and threats that he would no longer
take care of the victim’s educational needs, the
incest father, according to a family member, was
able to get away with it until February 10 2010,
when he was arrested.
According to a family source, the suspect took
custody of the victim from the mother when she was
only one and a half years old.
William started his sexual advances towards the
victim after the divorce with his second wife, the
source intimated, stressing that the suspect often
beat the victim and denied her feeding fee
whenever she resisted him.
The source averred that the victim finally
reported the matter to the police when she could
no longer bear the abuse.
Narrating the incident to the paper, the victim
said William Sakyie, after the day's work, often
mounted her every night while she was sleeping.
She said, "I kept the matter to myself until
February 10, 2010. My father, after work, pounced
on me that night as usual, to have sex with me and
when I refused, he gave me some beatings and
finally succeeded in sleeping with me.'"
Confirming the story, the Public Relations officer
of DOVVSU, Inspector Irene Opong, indicated that
the victim had been given a form for medical
examination whilst the suspect was being prepared
for court.
Source - Daily Guide
Man jailed for sexually abusing daughter
7 March 2014 11:42 CET
Comment Man jailed for sexually abusing daughter
Source: Graphic Online
A 39-year-old electrician has been sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment with hard labour by the Accra Circuit Court for having sexual intercourse with his daughter.
Reuben Yartey admitted committing the offence on December 31, 2013 and was accordingly convicted on his own plea by the court, presided over by Ms Ellen Vivian Amoah.
Yartey was charged with one count of defilement of a female child under 16, contrary to section 101 of Act 29/60.
He was said to have sexually abused his daughter, aged 15, for the past four years.
Trial judge
Passing the sentence, Ms Amoah stated that Yartey had tasted the "forbidden fruit" of his daughter and must, therefore, suffer the punishment.
She indicated that the court had decided to pass the 25-year sentence to serve as a deterrent to others who might harbour such nauseating feelings towards their children.
Ms Amoah emphasised that such acts were unlawful and unacceptable.
According to the presiding judge, the laws of the land frowned on such acts and further invited society to be bold in reporting such persons to the police.
Facts of the case
The facts of the case were that the convict,a resident of Gbawe in Accra, fathered the victim by her mother out of wedlock.
He lived in the same single room apartment with the victim, who is a junior high school (JHS) student in her second year.
On the day of the incident, the victim was asleep when Yartey took advantage of her and forcibly had sex with her.
According to the prosecution, Yartey warned the victim to not disclose what had happened to anyone.
However, the victim confided in her headmistress, who in turn invited her mother to the school to listen to her daughter's ordeal.
Report
The girl's mother, on February 14, 2014, reported Yartey's act to the Odorkor Division of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service.
Yartey was eventually picked up on March 2, 2014, and he admitted the offence in his caution statement.
Writer's email: mabel.baneseh@graphic.com.gh.
2 old men gang rape girl, 5
2 old men gang rape girl, 5
in News / by Times / on February 16, 2015 at 8:56 am /
TWO elderly men, Kofi Essoun, 60, a farmer and Nana Ahenkofi, 70, unemployed who took turns and defiled a five-year-old Kindergarten girl at Effia, near Takoradi, last December, have been arrested by the police.
The two, after defiling the girl, warned her not to tell anyone her ordeal or else, die.
The GhanaianTimes gathered that it was Essoun, who first defiled the girl after which Ahenkofi took over, by placing the girl on his lap and abusing her sexually, resulting in profused bleeding from the private part and anus.
They are currently in police custody, while investigations continue.
Confirming the incident, the Takoradi Police Commander, Superintendent Peter Ofori Donkor, disclosed that in December last year, Ama Asantewaaa, the mother of the girl, detected blood stains in the panties of her daughter and when she questioned her, she said nothing had happened, and, therefore, did not take the matter serious.
However, on February 9, this year, while victim was in school, the Nsuaem Royal Pioneer Preparatory School, she visited the toilet and kept long coming out.
A female teacher, who became worried about her long delay, decided to follow up, and when she went inside, saw the girl in serious pains, with her panties soaked in blood.
Superintendent Donkor disclosed further that, after thorough examination the teacher saw blood flowing from her private part and anus and so, had her rushed home at Effia and later sent to the Kwesimintsim Hospital.
The doctors, after examination, disclosed that she had been defiled. The case was therefore, reported to the Central Police Station here, and victim mentioned Essoun and Ahenkofi as the people who defiled her.
Essoun lives with the victim’s mother in the same house at Effia while Ahenkofi, lives nearby.
From Clement Adzei Boye,Takoradi
- See more at: http://www.ghanaiantimes.com.gh/2-old-men-gang-rape-girl-5/#sthash.9vS6PyXj.dpuf
in News / by Times / on February 16, 2015 at 8:56 am /
TWO elderly men, Kofi Essoun, 60, a farmer and Nana Ahenkofi, 70, unemployed who took turns and defiled a five-year-old Kindergarten girl at Effia, near Takoradi, last December, have been arrested by the police.
The two, after defiling the girl, warned her not to tell anyone her ordeal or else, die.
The GhanaianTimes gathered that it was Essoun, who first defiled the girl after which Ahenkofi took over, by placing the girl on his lap and abusing her sexually, resulting in profused bleeding from the private part and anus.
They are currently in police custody, while investigations continue.
Confirming the incident, the Takoradi Police Commander, Superintendent Peter Ofori Donkor, disclosed that in December last year, Ama Asantewaaa, the mother of the girl, detected blood stains in the panties of her daughter and when she questioned her, she said nothing had happened, and, therefore, did not take the matter serious.
However, on February 9, this year, while victim was in school, the Nsuaem Royal Pioneer Preparatory School, she visited the toilet and kept long coming out.
A female teacher, who became worried about her long delay, decided to follow up, and when she went inside, saw the girl in serious pains, with her panties soaked in blood.
Superintendent Donkor disclosed further that, after thorough examination the teacher saw blood flowing from her private part and anus and so, had her rushed home at Effia and later sent to the Kwesimintsim Hospital.
The doctors, after examination, disclosed that she had been defiled. The case was therefore, reported to the Central Police Station here, and victim mentioned Essoun and Ahenkofi as the people who defiled her.
Essoun lives with the victim’s mother in the same house at Effia while Ahenkofi, lives nearby.
From Clement Adzei Boye,Takoradi
- See more at: http://www.ghanaiantimes.com.gh/2-old-men-gang-rape-girl-5/#sthash.9vS6PyXj.dpuf
Man Impregnates Daughter
Man Impregnates Daughter
November 15, 2014
Daily Guide
rape
A Circuit Court at Bekwai in the Ashanti Region has sentenced a 32-year-old man, Augustine Osei, to 16 years imprisonment with hard labour for impregnating his daughter.
The convict was said to have repeatedly defiled the 13-yearold. Osei, a native of Ofoase Kokoben, was convicted on his plea of guilty to two counts of defilement and incest, contrary to sections 101 and 105 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).
It was revealed that the convict defiled his daughter on three occasions in their family house at Ofoase Kokoben, near Anwia Nkwanta, while his pregnant wife, Akua Afriyie, was away.
The man’s actions were revealed when the class five pupil went to a hospital for medical check-up, complaining of feverishness and stomach pains.
During medical examination it was discovered that she was pregnant.
Upon interrogation, she pointed at her father as the one responsible for the pregnancy.
Police prosecutor, Chief Inspector Dennis Nana Duku, informed the court that the complainant, Yaw Offin, was the grandfather of the victim, while the convict, Augustine Osei, was a farmer and native of Ofoase Kokoben.
According to him, the convict and the girl’s mother, for some time now, had been cohabitating, living like husband and wife in the local community.
Prosecution said they lived together with their 13-year-old daughter and that Osei took advantage of his wife’s absence and forcibly had sexual intercourse with the daughter in July 2014 after inviting the innocent girl to their room.
Chief Inspector Duku narrated that the convict threatened his daughter with death and succeeded in further abusing the child on different occasions till the girl fell ill and was taken to the hospital, where it was revealed that she was pregnant.
The police prosecutor indicated that the girl blew the cover of her father when the mother demanded to know the man responsible for the 21-week pregnancy.
When he was confronted, Osei pleaded for forgiveness. Akua Afriyie subsequently
reported the incident to her father who lodged a complaint with the police, leading to the arrest of the convict who admitted to the offence in his caution
statement.
He was therefore charged and arraigned after police investigations, leading to his eventual conviction.
FROM Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi
Father Bonks Daughter For Two Years
Father Bonks Daughter For Two Years
June 27, 2015
Source- Daily Guide
The Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police service at Ashaiman is holding a 39-year-old man who purportedly molested his 16-year-old daughter sexually.
Peter Barabu, the suspect, a steel bender who resides at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region, was said to be having sexual intercourse with his own daughter for over two years.
Information available to DAILY GUIDE revealed that the victim and her 13-year-old brother were staying with their paternal grandfather at Klikor in the Volta Region when Peter Barabu brought them to reside with him at Ashaiman some three years ago.
The alleged sexual game was said to have started somewhere in December 2012 during the Christmas festivities when the suspect, who was sleeping alone, ordered his daughter, who was then sleeping on the floor in the same room, to join him in the bed.
Victim reportedly obliged and while they were sleeping, the victim allegedly detected that the father was making some sexual advances towards her by fondling her breasts. She quickly protested but the father persisted and allegedly had sexual intercourse with her.
According to the victim, the practice continued until June 18, 2015 at about 9:00 p.m. when Peter Barabu, in another attempt to have sex with her, was resisted by her.
Suspect allegedly became offended and purportedly beat up the victim with a torchlight until she gave in.
Immediately after the incident, the victim was said to have vacated the room and sought refuge in neighbour ’s house and on the following day a formal complaint was made to the DOVVSU at Ashaiman.
A police medical report form was issued to the victim who attended hospital for examination, and the medical report confirmed the act.
Peter Barabu was arrested but denied the offence in his caution statement to the police as investigations into the matter is ongoing.
From Vincent Kubi, Ashaiman
June 27, 2015
Source- Daily Guide
The Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police service at Ashaiman is holding a 39-year-old man who purportedly molested his 16-year-old daughter sexually.
Peter Barabu, the suspect, a steel bender who resides at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region, was said to be having sexual intercourse with his own daughter for over two years.
Information available to DAILY GUIDE revealed that the victim and her 13-year-old brother were staying with their paternal grandfather at Klikor in the Volta Region when Peter Barabu brought them to reside with him at Ashaiman some three years ago.
The alleged sexual game was said to have started somewhere in December 2012 during the Christmas festivities when the suspect, who was sleeping alone, ordered his daughter, who was then sleeping on the floor in the same room, to join him in the bed.
Victim reportedly obliged and while they were sleeping, the victim allegedly detected that the father was making some sexual advances towards her by fondling her breasts. She quickly protested but the father persisted and allegedly had sexual intercourse with her.
According to the victim, the practice continued until June 18, 2015 at about 9:00 p.m. when Peter Barabu, in another attempt to have sex with her, was resisted by her.
Suspect allegedly became offended and purportedly beat up the victim with a torchlight until she gave in.
Immediately after the incident, the victim was said to have vacated the room and sought refuge in neighbour ’s house and on the following day a formal complaint was made to the DOVVSU at Ashaiman.
A police medical report form was issued to the victim who attended hospital for examination, and the medical report confirmed the act.
Peter Barabu was arrested but denied the offence in his caution statement to the police as investigations into the matter is ongoing.
From Vincent Kubi, Ashaiman
Man Arrested for Raping and Having a Child with His Daughter
Posted on 19 Aug 2014 at 9:59pm
You can never account for the callousness or just sheer wickedness of some people. Because to think of it that must be a person’s mental state, or they are just sick, before they can carry out some of the actions this man is alleged to have done.
40 year old Edem Fedieley has been arrested by police in Adentan for sleeping with his 17 year old daughter. Fedieley is believed to have fathered a child on her, whilst keeping her captive for years so he could satisfy his unnatural urges whenever it comes upon him.
Graphic Online reports the girl run away from the house one morning, having become fed up with the constant abuse. He father then reported his daughter missing to the police, and she was later picked up at the house of a young man she had befriended.
The man, 19, was initially charged with abduction, but the girl told police her father had been abusing and she thus sought refuge with him. This led to the man being released and her father being arrested.
He is reported to have admitted everything during police interrogations.
The girl told police she had been living alone with her father since she was 12, during which time he had been carrying out his ‘activities’.
He reportedly gave her a mixture of honey and locally distilled alcohol to make her drowsy before sex, and threatened her with her life should she ever dare tell anyone.
Edem even put his daughter on a contraceptive to prevent another pregnancy after she delivered a baby boy last year.
The police revealed the victim had assault marks all over her body, and that the girl’s father has been charged with incest pending arraignment before court.
I don’t know but something tells me this man must be charged with a ton more charges to cover all the atrocities he has committed against his own flesh and blood.
We don’t often consider those things down here but that girl is going to need some professional help if she’s ever to have a normal life from here on out.
- See more at: http://www.ghanacelebrities.com/2014/08/19/man-arrested-raping-child-daughter/#sthash.LYjHogxZ.dpuf
Man before court for raping his three daughters and son
Added on June 11, 2014
A 42-year-old official of the Customs Exercise and Preventive Service (CEPS), accused of raping, defiling and sodomizing his four biological children, will be arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court today.
Michael Kojo Acquah, an administrative officer at The Revenue Collection Division, is alleged to have sexually molested his kids whose ages are between ten months, seven years, 11 and 20 years.
According to Chief Superintendent Paul Kontomah, the Accra Regional Police Crime Officer, the incident was reported last Tuesday.
He disclosed that one Titiana Kotlyarenko, Executive Director of Enslavement Alliance West Africa, came to the police station with one Emily Lawa, a Social Service Department Officer of the Ghana Police Service, to report that the accused, Acquah, had sodomized his seven-year-old son and had also sodomized, defiled and raped three of his daughters aged ten months, 11 years and 20 years respectively.
Based on this information, Chief Superintendent Kontomah claimed, the police apprehended Acquah at his matrimonial home Saturday morning at Banana Inn near Mamprobi, Accra.
He said forms were then issued to the victims for medical examination at the Police Hospital.
According to Chief Superintendent Kontomah, the police had since received the medical reports and would present them before court as evidence.
Wife’s Confession
Meanwhile, the wife of the accused (name withheld), according to information gathered, told the police that that was the second time the husband, to whom she had been married for 25 years, had sexually molested his biological children.
In 2010, Acquah was said to have raped his first daughter (now 20 years of age) and the matter was reported to the Ministries Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) where he was allegedly remanded into prison custody for three months.
On May 18, 2014, while she was asleep with the children, the mother said, Acquah, who sleeps in a separate room, entered their room and took their ten-month-old baby, placed her at the edge of the bed and inserted his manhood into her mouth.
The mother was reported to have said that when she felt that her daughter was not lying by her side, she immediately woke up only to find her daughter sucking his father’s penis.
The following day, according to the wife, she reported the matter to an NGO for help since the police refused to act on the previous complaint lodged.
Children’s Confession
The seven-year-old son allegedly told the police that his father had anal sex with him early last month while he was asleep.
The boy was reported to have added that he even pulled a knife at the father the following day because he was getting fed-up with his dad’s actions.
The two girls also confirmed in their respective statements that their father had sexually abused them.
Medical Reports
Reports issued from the Police Hospital indicated that there had been penetration in the private parts of the girls.
The reports revealed that all the girls had their hymens broken.
The boy, the medical report revealed, was also sodomized.
Source: Daily Guide
A 42-year-old official of the Customs Exercise and Preventive Service (CEPS), accused of raping, defiling and sodomizing his four biological children, will be arraigned before an Accra Circuit Court today.
Michael Kojo Acquah, an administrative officer at The Revenue Collection Division, is alleged to have sexually molested his kids whose ages are between ten months, seven years, 11 and 20 years.
According to Chief Superintendent Paul Kontomah, the Accra Regional Police Crime Officer, the incident was reported last Tuesday.
He disclosed that one Titiana Kotlyarenko, Executive Director of Enslavement Alliance West Africa, came to the police station with one Emily Lawa, a Social Service Department Officer of the Ghana Police Service, to report that the accused, Acquah, had sodomized his seven-year-old son and had also sodomized, defiled and raped three of his daughters aged ten months, 11 years and 20 years respectively.
Based on this information, Chief Superintendent Kontomah claimed, the police apprehended Acquah at his matrimonial home Saturday morning at Banana Inn near Mamprobi, Accra.
He said forms were then issued to the victims for medical examination at the Police Hospital.
According to Chief Superintendent Kontomah, the police had since received the medical reports and would present them before court as evidence.
Wife’s Confession
Meanwhile, the wife of the accused (name withheld), according to information gathered, told the police that that was the second time the husband, to whom she had been married for 25 years, had sexually molested his biological children.
In 2010, Acquah was said to have raped his first daughter (now 20 years of age) and the matter was reported to the Ministries Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) where he was allegedly remanded into prison custody for three months.
On May 18, 2014, while she was asleep with the children, the mother said, Acquah, who sleeps in a separate room, entered their room and took their ten-month-old baby, placed her at the edge of the bed and inserted his manhood into her mouth.
The mother was reported to have said that when she felt that her daughter was not lying by her side, she immediately woke up only to find her daughter sucking his father’s penis.
The following day, according to the wife, she reported the matter to an NGO for help since the police refused to act on the previous complaint lodged.
Children’s Confession
The seven-year-old son allegedly told the police that his father had anal sex with him early last month while he was asleep.
The boy was reported to have added that he even pulled a knife at the father the following day because he was getting fed-up with his dad’s actions.
The two girls also confirmed in their respective statements that their father had sexually abused them.
Medical Reports
Reports issued from the Police Hospital indicated that there had been penetration in the private parts of the girls.
The reports revealed that all the girls had their hymens broken.
The boy, the medical report revealed, was also sodomized.
Source: Daily Guide
40-year-old man sentenced 10-years for raping teenage daughter
40-year-old man sentenced 10-years for raping teenage daughter
2015-07-22 14:17 | 198 Views | 0 Comments
Accra – A farmer has been sentenced to 10 years behind bars after being convicted of raping his 13-years old daughter, reports Ghana web.
Isaac Okyere, 40, who had pleaded not guilty to the charges of defilement and incest, was found guilty by the Cape Coast Circuit Court.
Judge Kofi Seshie Ametewee, sentenced Okyere to 7 years in jail for rape, three years for incest which would be running concurrently.
Prosecuting Police Chief Inspector Christina Sampong told the court that the convicted rapist had been staying with his teenage daughter for the past ten years after her mother divorced him and left for Accra.
Read:87-year-old rape suspect free on bail
Sampong revealed that on February 16, 2015 the teenage girl went to the Ajumako Police station where she reported that her 40-years old father had raped her.
She further stated that police investigation revealed that the convicted father lured her daughter to his bedroom where he sexually abused her.
The prosecution said the victim narrated her ordeal to her grandmother who refused to act on it hence the victim’s decision to lodge a complaint at the police station where a medical form issued and endorsed by a medical doctor indicated that she had been defiled.
- News 24
Father before court for defiling daughter .
A 44-year-old father accused of allegedly defiling his biological daughter repeatedly for two years has been remanded by the Accra Circuit Court.
The court remanded Solomon Addae Mensah, an electrician, to reappear on September 23, 2014.
Standing trial on three counts of defilement, incest and assault, the accused person pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Even though the accused person denied defiling his daughter upon his arrest on July 11, 2014 and claimed he only assaulted her physically, the court heard that the victim confided in her class teacher that she had been sexually assaulted by her father on many occasions.
Facts of the case
Prosecuting, Assistant Superintendent of Police, (ASP) Adiza Suleman, said the teacher, after hearing the story of the teenager, reported the case to the Kaneshie Division of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service.
According to ASP Suleman, the father of the victim sexually abused her when she was 11 year old and usually told her to not inform anyone about it.
It is reported that Mensah Addae threatened his daughter with a gun and gave her a whitish substance believed to be narcotic drug before each sexual assault.
ASP Suleman said the victim, now 13, who could no longer bear the ordeal, informed her class teacher.
At the police station, she said, the victim was issued a medical form and was taken to the hospital.
Background
Upon the arrest of the accused person, police investigations showed that the victim had assault marks all over her body, while there was a discharge from her private parts.
According to the Kaneshie Division Coordinator of DOVVSU, Deputy Superintendent of Police Ms Anita Abrakwa, the victim, whose mother died when she was seven years, lived in the same house with her father and her stepmother in the Kaneshie Estates.
After the victim’s mother died she lived with a family friend until she was 11 when her father went for her to live with him.
“But as soon as she moved in with her father, he started having canal knowledge of her under threat,” she said.
According to Ms Abrakwa, “the victim said she had been subjected to many sexual bouts since she was 11 but her father had put fear in her to not inform anyone”.
He was said to have threatened to kill his daughter and dump her body in a manhole if she ever told anyone about the act.
“But the victim, after one of those sexual assaults, could not bear the pain and threats any longer and reported her ordeal to her teacher,” the DOVVSU coordinator added.
Medical report
The victim produced tattered panties which she said her father tore into shreds as he attempted to force her into having sex with him.
Ms Abrakwa said a medical report form was immediately issued to the victim and an examination at the Police Hospital indicated that her hymen had been broken.
She said when the police searched the residence of the suspect, the gun he had been using to threaten his daughter could not be found, but a mask was retrieved.
On the advice of the Social Welfare Department, the victim now lives with her class teacher until the court decides on the case
http://ghana.news24.com/National-News/40-year-old-man-sentenced-10-years-for-raping-teenage-daughter-20150722
The court remanded Solomon Addae Mensah, an electrician, to reappear on September 23, 2014.
Standing trial on three counts of defilement, incest and assault, the accused person pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Even though the accused person denied defiling his daughter upon his arrest on July 11, 2014 and claimed he only assaulted her physically, the court heard that the victim confided in her class teacher that she had been sexually assaulted by her father on many occasions.
Facts of the case
Prosecuting, Assistant Superintendent of Police, (ASP) Adiza Suleman, said the teacher, after hearing the story of the teenager, reported the case to the Kaneshie Division of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service.
According to ASP Suleman, the father of the victim sexually abused her when she was 11 year old and usually told her to not inform anyone about it.
It is reported that Mensah Addae threatened his daughter with a gun and gave her a whitish substance believed to be narcotic drug before each sexual assault.
ASP Suleman said the victim, now 13, who could no longer bear the ordeal, informed her class teacher.
At the police station, she said, the victim was issued a medical form and was taken to the hospital.
Background
Upon the arrest of the accused person, police investigations showed that the victim had assault marks all over her body, while there was a discharge from her private parts.
According to the Kaneshie Division Coordinator of DOVVSU, Deputy Superintendent of Police Ms Anita Abrakwa, the victim, whose mother died when she was seven years, lived in the same house with her father and her stepmother in the Kaneshie Estates.
After the victim’s mother died she lived with a family friend until she was 11 when her father went for her to live with him.
“But as soon as she moved in with her father, he started having canal knowledge of her under threat,” she said.
According to Ms Abrakwa, “the victim said she had been subjected to many sexual bouts since she was 11 but her father had put fear in her to not inform anyone”.
He was said to have threatened to kill his daughter and dump her body in a manhole if she ever told anyone about the act.
“But the victim, after one of those sexual assaults, could not bear the pain and threats any longer and reported her ordeal to her teacher,” the DOVVSU coordinator added.
Medical report
The victim produced tattered panties which she said her father tore into shreds as he attempted to force her into having sex with him.
Ms Abrakwa said a medical report form was immediately issued to the victim and an examination at the Police Hospital indicated that her hymen had been broken.
She said when the police searched the residence of the suspect, the gun he had been using to threaten his daughter could not be found, but a mask was retrieved.
On the advice of the Social Welfare Department, the victim now lives with her class teacher until the court decides on the case
http://ghana.news24.com/National-News/40-year-old-man-sentenced-10-years-for-raping-teenage-daughter-20150722
Daughter reports father to police sexually abusing her
The Eastern Regional branch of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) has arrested a 38-year-old resident of Asokore-Zongo, a suburb of Koforidua, Prosper Gli, for defiling his biological daughter.
Prosper Gli, popularly known as Mawuko, reportedly decided to ‘taste’ his 15-year-old Junior High School (JHS) three (3) student, before any man snatches her away from him. The young girl who could, however, not withstand the strong ‘rod’ of the father reported the case to her teachers, who in turn informed the police, leading to the arrest of the suspect.
Confirming the story to The Chronicle, Superintendent Eunice Annor, officer-in-charge of Eastern Regional DOVVSU said Prosper Gli has been having sexual bouts with his daughter since August 2014.
The victim, according to the police boss, was staying with the biological mother in Accra but decided to come to stay with the father and step-mother in Asokore-Zongo, Koforidua, only to be subjected to sexual abuse by the father.
She continued that, the victim has sexually suffered in the hands of the father until February 4, when the police intervened. Superintendent Annor explained that, on that fateful day, the father after church service decided to insert the daughter with an unknown medicine under the pretext of curing her (victim) from an unknown infection.
The paper was told that, after inserting the victim with the unknown medicine, Prosper Gli told the daughter that, the medicine would be effective after he has pushed it with his penis, a usual trick he had been using.
The daughter, however, decided to report the conduct of the father to one of her teachers who in turn reported to the Headmistress of the school. The Headmistress reported the case to the police, leading to the arrest of Mawuko.
According to the police, a medical report has confirmed that the young girl has been defiled.
Source: The Chronicle
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Child sexual abuse is a serious problem in Ghana, and reported cases are increasing.
•In 2012, the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana police reported that Ghana had 1,111 reported cases of child sexual assault.
•The prevalence rate of child sexual abuse in Africa reported in 2009 is 34.4%, which is the highest globally.
• In 2006, UNFPA (United Nations Fund for Population Activities) reported that 40-47% of sexual assaults globally are perpetrated against girls below 15 years of age.
In response to this issue, Light for Children created the Preventive Child Sexual Assault Workshops, which have been presented in primary and junior high schools since 2010. To help young people deal with the serious subject matter, the presentations are kept engaging and interactive. Using skits, songs, and a detailed talk, the workshops educate students about:
•What sexual assault is, and how to recognise warning signs
•Every person’s right to be free of sexual assault
•What children should do if they are sexually assaulted
and the stigma attached to the victim can be severe. So many cases are settled with a bribe outside of court. These settlements do nothing to help the abused children deal with the physical and psychological damage caused by the assault.
Because of these barriers to action, Light for Children offers follow-up advice and counselling after the workshops. Volunteers present the workshops answer as many questions as they can, but they also leave the contact information of trained Light for Children staff, whom the students can call later to discuss issues of abuse and seek advice.
Since 2010 these workshops have reached over 20, 000 students in the Ashanti Region, and Light for Children will be expanding the program to include Sunyani, a city in the Brong Ahafo Region.
http://www.lightforchildren.com/#!preventive-child-sexual-abuse-workshops/c20qb
•In 2012, the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana police reported that Ghana had 1,111 reported cases of child sexual assault.
•The prevalence rate of child sexual abuse in Africa reported in 2009 is 34.4%, which is the highest globally.
• In 2006, UNFPA (United Nations Fund for Population Activities) reported that 40-47% of sexual assaults globally are perpetrated against girls below 15 years of age.
In response to this issue, Light for Children created the Preventive Child Sexual Assault Workshops, which have been presented in primary and junior high schools since 2010. To help young people deal with the serious subject matter, the presentations are kept engaging and interactive. Using skits, songs, and a detailed talk, the workshops educate students about:
•What sexual assault is, and how to recognise warning signs
•Every person’s right to be free of sexual assault
•What children should do if they are sexually assaulted
and the stigma attached to the victim can be severe. So many cases are settled with a bribe outside of court. These settlements do nothing to help the abused children deal with the physical and psychological damage caused by the assault.
Because of these barriers to action, Light for Children offers follow-up advice and counselling after the workshops. Volunteers present the workshops answer as many questions as they can, but they also leave the contact information of trained Light for Children staff, whom the students can call later to discuss issues of abuse and seek advice.
Since 2010 these workshops have reached over 20, 000 students in the Ashanti Region, and Light for Children will be expanding the program to include Sunyani, a city in the Brong Ahafo Region.
http://www.lightforchildren.com/#!preventive-child-sexual-abuse-workshops/c20qb
Father burns 8-year-old with iron over poor results
July 8, 2015
An eight-year-old girl’s hand has been burnt by her father over her poor performance in an exam.
The class one pupil of Trinity Presbyterian Primary School in the New Juaben Municipality in the Eastern region was burnt with a hot iron by her father.
The father, known only as Akorozo, was angered by her daughter’s poor showing in a mock exam and subjected her to severe beatings before burning her back with a hot iron.
Starr FM’s Eastern regional correspondent Kojo Ansah reported that her father threatened her not to disclose her injuries to anybody.
According to Kojo Ansah, Akorozo then compelled her daughter to wear a cardigan to cover her injuries but unable to bear the pains she removed her clothes which exposed her injuries to teachers of the school.
Meanwhile, a teacher of the girl has revealed that Akorozo has failed to purchase the necessary books required by her daughter to study.
Source: Starr Fm
An eight-year-old girl’s hand has been burnt by her father over her poor performance in an exam.
The class one pupil of Trinity Presbyterian Primary School in the New Juaben Municipality in the Eastern region was burnt with a hot iron by her father.
The father, known only as Akorozo, was angered by her daughter’s poor showing in a mock exam and subjected her to severe beatings before burning her back with a hot iron.
Starr FM’s Eastern regional correspondent Kojo Ansah reported that her father threatened her not to disclose her injuries to anybody.
According to Kojo Ansah, Akorozo then compelled her daughter to wear a cardigan to cover her injuries but unable to bear the pains she removed her clothes which exposed her injuries to teachers of the school.
Meanwhile, a teacher of the girl has revealed that Akorozo has failed to purchase the necessary books required by her daughter to study.
Source: Starr Fm
Mother burns daughter's face
July 8, 2014
Thirty year Cecilia Commey is in the police custody for allegedly burning her daughter’s face with hot iron.
The mother of two who lives at Savoy, a suburb of Cape Coast in the Central Region did the atrocious act to her nine year old daughter because refused to absent herself from school to beg for alms.
Narrating her ordeal to Adom New Monday, the nine year old class two pupil said her mother will beat her mercilessly if she use part of the money she solicit for food.
She added that her mother also threatened to poison her if she does not quit school and join her beg for alms.
Meanwhile, the Central Regional Coordinator for the Domestic Violent Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana, DSP George Appiah Sakyi said Cecilia Commey is a criminal offense.
He explained that it is a criminal offence to maltreat and deny a child her right to education and force her into child labour.
DSP Appiah said Cecilia Commey will be arranged before court on Tuesday 8th day of July, 2014 for the law to take it cause.
Source: adomonline
Mother Burns Child With Hot Iron
By Daily Guide 27/May 2014
DAILY GUIDE leant that the boy is currently receiving treatment at the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi, Western Region, for the multiple burns he sustained.
This paper gathered that the 28-year-old mother is in the grips of the Takoradi police while investigations into the incident continue.
Speaking to journalists, Emmanuel Edwin Adogo, Assemblyman for Lower New Takoradi, disclosed that the little boy, Bernard Asafua, confessed to stealing the money belonging to his classmate after initially denying committing the offence.
Mr. Adogo explained that the boy's initial denial angered his mother who allegedly injured the boy with a hot iron after subjecting him to severe beatings.
According to sources, the grandmother of the boy rushed to his rescue when she heard him screaming while he was being beaten and also the pains he was feeling from the burns.
The boy was quickly rushed to the New Takoradi Health Centre for first aid, but was later transferred to the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital due to the severity of the burns.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi
https://www.modernghana.com/news/544233/1/mother-burns-child-with-hot-iron.html
DAILY GUIDE leant that the boy is currently receiving treatment at the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi, Western Region, for the multiple burns he sustained.
This paper gathered that the 28-year-old mother is in the grips of the Takoradi police while investigations into the incident continue.
Speaking to journalists, Emmanuel Edwin Adogo, Assemblyman for Lower New Takoradi, disclosed that the little boy, Bernard Asafua, confessed to stealing the money belonging to his classmate after initially denying committing the offence.
Mr. Adogo explained that the boy's initial denial angered his mother who allegedly injured the boy with a hot iron after subjecting him to severe beatings.
According to sources, the grandmother of the boy rushed to his rescue when she heard him screaming while he was being beaten and also the pains he was feeling from the burns.
The boy was quickly rushed to the New Takoradi Health Centre for first aid, but was later transferred to the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital due to the severity of the burns.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi
https://www.modernghana.com/news/544233/1/mother-burns-child-with-hot-iron.html
Woman jailed for burning 14year old
An Accra Circuit Court on Friday sentenced a 40-year- old mother, Mary Timah, to six years imprisonment for causing unlawful harm to her son.
Mary inflicted injuries on her 14-year-old son with a hot electric iron for allegedly stealing her GH¢ 20.
She pleaded not guilty to the charge of causing harm to the son.
The presiding judge, Mrs Rita Agyemang Badu, said Mary intentionally inflicted the wounds on her son because she claimed he had stolen her money but that was not the right way to punish a child for such a crime.
She said despite the fact that Mary was the biological mother of the child, she had no right whatsoever to do what she did, and as such deserved to be given a harsher sentence to serve as a deterrent to others.
“I would have given you a harsher sentence but for the fact that you are the biological mother of the victim, and doing so would create a vacuum in the home. I hereby sentence you to six years imprisonment to serve as a deterrent to others”.
Earlier the Prosecution, Police Inspector Kofi Atimbiri, told the court that the convict resided at Osu-Accra together with the victim and his two other siblings.
He said on Saturday February 7, the convict returned home and noticed that GH¢20 she had kept in her wardrobe had gone missing.
He said Mary, without any evidence, immediately accused his son as the one who broke into the wardrobe to steal the money.
He told the court that she then locked up the victim in a room and wickedly assaulted him by placing a hot electric iron on his cheek, ear, neck and hand which resulted in severe injuries.
The prosecution said the victim escaped and reported the incident. He was rushed to the Police Hospital where he was admitted for days.
Police Inspector Atimbiri said Mary was later arrested and charged with the offence of causing unlawful harm.
- See more at: http://graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/39343-mother-gets-six-years-for-burning-son.html#sthash.GoxmzDI9.dpuf
Mother burns boys hands for stealing
The 14-year-old student who reported his biological mother, Mary Timah, to the Osu police in Accra over hot iron burns he sustained, yesterday admitted stealing GHȻ20.00 from his mother's wardrobe. The boy had appeared before an Accra Gender-Based Violence Court where his mother is being tried and said to have confessed perpetrating the crime. It is unclear what the child might have needed the said amount for. This compelled Timah, 40, to allegedly burn the boy's hands with hot iron after she had accused him of stealing GHȻ20.00. Though the case was heard in camera in the court presided over by Mrs. Rita Agyeman Budu, Daily Guide sources claim that the teenager admitted stealing the money from his mother. Timah has been remanded into police custody to reappear on Wednesday, February 18, 2015. She is facing a charge of causing harm contrary to Section 69 of Act 29/60 - an offence she has denied. Inspector Kofi Atimbiri told the court that on February 7, 2015, Timah returned from town and noticed that someone had broken into her wardrobe and stolen the aforementioned amount and that the acused strongly suspected the victim to be the one who stole it. Inspector Atimbiri indicated that as a result, Timah called the victim into their room, locked the door and asked him who it was that stole the money. According to prosecution, when the boy denied taking the money, Timah heated an electric iron and burnt the victim's hand and cheek with it but the victim managed to escape to the police station. Inspector Atimbiri indicated that the victim was rushed to the Police Hospital where he was admitted, treated and discharged after some days. - See more at: http://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2015/february-17th/i-stole-my-mothers-money-boy-who-reported-mother-to-police.php#sthash.pzag75ZF.dpuf
http://graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/38730-boy-reports-mum-to-police-over-hot-iron-burns.html
http://graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/38730-boy-reports-mum-to-police-over-hot-iron-burns.html
Margaret Smith, Ritual Abuse: What it is, Why it Happens, and How to Help
“Betrayal is too kind a word to describe a situation in which a father says he loves his daughter but claims he must teach her about the horrors of the world in order to make her a stronger person; a situation in which he watches or participates in rituals that make her feel like she is going to die. She experiences pain that is so intense that she cannot think; her head spins so fast she can't remember who she is or how she got there.
All she knows is pain. All she feels is desperation. She tries to cry out for help, but soon learns that no one will listen. No matter how loud she cries, she can't stop or change what is happening. No matter what she does, the pain will not stop. Her father orders her to be tortured and tells her it is for her own good. He tells her that she needs the discipline, or that she has asked for it by her misbehavior. Betrayal is too simple a word to describe the overwhelming pain, the overwhelming loneliness and isolation this child experiences.
As if the abuse during the rituals were not enough, this child experiences similar abuse at home on a daily basis. When she tries to talk about her pain, she is told that she must be crazy. "Nothing bad has happened to you;' her family tells her Each day she begins to feel more and more like she doesn't know what is real. She stops trusting her own feelings because no one else acknowledges them or hears her agony. Soon the pain becomes too great. She learns not to feel at all. This strong, lonely, desperate child learns to give up the senses that make all people feel alive. She begins to feel dead.
She wishes she were dead. For her there is no way out. She soon learns there is no hope.
As she grows older she gets stronger. She learns to do what she is told with the utmost compliance. She forgets everything she has ever wanted. The pain still lurks, but it's easier to pretend it's not there than to acknowledge the horrors she has buried in the deepest parts of her mind. Her relationships are overwhelmed by the power of her emotions. She reaches out for help, but never seems to find what she is looking for The pain gets worse. The loneliness sets in. When the feelings return, she is overcome with panic, pain, and desperation.
She is convinced she is going to die. Yet, when she looks around her she sees nothing that should make her feel so bad. Deep inside she knows something is very, very wrong, but she doesn't remember anything. She thinks, "Maybe I am crazy.”
― Margaret Smith, Ritual Abuse: What it is, Why it Happens, and How to Help
Abusive Father Walks free
On August 4, 2015, Joy FM reports the story of an 18year old had been sexually abused by the father since she was 12years old. Though the case was reported and the father arrested, he now walks free. Girl in a shelter.
http://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2015/August-4th/abusive-father-who-defiled-impregnated-daughter-walks-free.php
An 18 year old girl is in emotional pain after her father allegedly engaged her in sexual encounters for many years, impregnating her in the process.
The girl, whose name has been withheld to protect her identity told Joy News’ Beatrice Adu that her father forcibly started having sex with her when she was just 12 years old.
At only 16 years old, the girl became pregnant, confused and scared.
“I was pregnant but I didn’t know I was pregnant”, the girl told Beatrice Adu.
She could not tell her aunties and other relatives about her ordeal because her father had warned against it.
The now 18-year-old does not know who her mother is. Her mother left her father when she was just 3 months old.
She said her father started penetrating her vagina gradually until it was open enough for sexual intercourse.
“He goes to work and comes back late to worry me. He sometimes tells me not to wear anything to bed. He sometimes shows pornographic movies to me but I don’t like the movie”, the girl said in an emotion-filled voice.
She said when she attempts to throw away the phone on which his abusive father was showing her the pornographic clips, he would beat her.
“For me I thought it was something that all fathers do to their daughters. My aunties became suspicious and started asking me questions but he told me to tell them that I was raped”, she said.
After delivery, her 45-year-old father forced her to take on a family planning programme so he could continue having sex with her.
The girl’s ordeal was reported to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service and the father was arrested.
However, Joy News sources say he is currently walking a free man.
The girl, who is currently at a shelter provided her by the Adenta DOVVSU, told Joy News she feels abused.
According to Beatrice Adu, checks at DOVVSU on steps being taken to bring the abusive father to book have not been successful.
The Prosecutor who is handling the case has traveled out of Ghana on another assignment, according to DOVVSU.
Acting Coordinating Director of DOVVSU, ACP Habiba Twumasi-Sarpong, told Joy FM's Super Morning Show Tuesday the Police are still pursuing the case.
She said although it is unfortunate the girl's father has been released on bail, the Police is defenseless in that regard.
She said the Circuit Court that heard the case found it prudent to grant bail despite efforts to put him behind bars.
ACP Twumasi-Sarpong however gave the assurance that reports that the girl's father went to the shelter to threaten the girl and care takers would be investigated.
The shelter is assisting the abused girl to study to write her Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) next year.
http://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2015/August-4th/abusive-father-who-defiled-impregnated-daughter-walks-free.php
An 18 year old girl is in emotional pain after her father allegedly engaged her in sexual encounters for many years, impregnating her in the process.
The girl, whose name has been withheld to protect her identity told Joy News’ Beatrice Adu that her father forcibly started having sex with her when she was just 12 years old.
At only 16 years old, the girl became pregnant, confused and scared.
“I was pregnant but I didn’t know I was pregnant”, the girl told Beatrice Adu.
She could not tell her aunties and other relatives about her ordeal because her father had warned against it.
The now 18-year-old does not know who her mother is. Her mother left her father when she was just 3 months old.
She said her father started penetrating her vagina gradually until it was open enough for sexual intercourse.
“He goes to work and comes back late to worry me. He sometimes tells me not to wear anything to bed. He sometimes shows pornographic movies to me but I don’t like the movie”, the girl said in an emotion-filled voice.
She said when she attempts to throw away the phone on which his abusive father was showing her the pornographic clips, he would beat her.
“For me I thought it was something that all fathers do to their daughters. My aunties became suspicious and started asking me questions but he told me to tell them that I was raped”, she said.
After delivery, her 45-year-old father forced her to take on a family planning programme so he could continue having sex with her.
The girl’s ordeal was reported to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service and the father was arrested.
However, Joy News sources say he is currently walking a free man.
The girl, who is currently at a shelter provided her by the Adenta DOVVSU, told Joy News she feels abused.
According to Beatrice Adu, checks at DOVVSU on steps being taken to bring the abusive father to book have not been successful.
The Prosecutor who is handling the case has traveled out of Ghana on another assignment, according to DOVVSU.
Acting Coordinating Director of DOVVSU, ACP Habiba Twumasi-Sarpong, told Joy FM's Super Morning Show Tuesday the Police are still pursuing the case.
She said although it is unfortunate the girl's father has been released on bail, the Police is defenseless in that regard.
She said the Circuit Court that heard the case found it prudent to grant bail despite efforts to put him behind bars.
ACP Twumasi-Sarpong however gave the assurance that reports that the girl's father went to the shelter to threaten the girl and care takers would be investigated.
The shelter is assisting the abused girl to study to write her Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) next year.
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