Prince Appiah after he was arrested
A private Security Guard who robbed an Accra based banker and murdered her 53-year-old house help with a pavement block has been sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment in hard labour by an Accra Circuit Court.
The convict, Prince Appiah and one Yeboah, currently at large, were reported to have conspired and robbed their victim at her residence at Tema Community 20 on July 14, 2017.
He is said to have made away with $1,000, GH¢1,000, £500, one Ipod, a Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, three rotary wrist watches, jewelries, ATM card and unspecified amount of South African Rand.
He later went into hiding in his village the Ashanti Region but was arrested at his hideout at Biakwaso near Ashanti Bekwai.
He was put before the court proffered with the charges of conspiracy to rob and robbery, to which he pleaded not guilty.
He reportedly admitted the offence in his police caution statement that he planned the robbery with Yeboah because the victim is a banker and “very rich”.
He, however, denied any knowledge of the robbery during the trial insisting that the robbers on the said night held him at knife point and ordered him to take them to the victim and he obliged for fear of losing his life.
The court presided over by Mr. Aboagye Tandoh in his judgement held that the convict’s defence that he knew nothing about the robbery was just an afterthought to throw dust in the court’s eyes.
He said the prosecution has proved beyond doubt that the convict indeed committed the crime.
He, therefore, sentenced him to 25 years’ imprisonment in hard labour for robbery.
He was, however, acquitted and discharged of the charge of conspiracy to rob since the other person he allegedly conspired with could not be traced.
Facts
The facts of the case as presented by Superintendent Patience Mario are that convict was employed by a private security company, in January, 2017, and was detailed to perform guard duties at the complainant’s residence.
In May, 2017, he was asked to perform night guard duty as the one performing it had resigned.
This gave him access to the complainant’s movements and then planned with Yeboah now on the run to rob complainant.
On July 14, 2017, when accused reported for duty at about 5.30pm, he came with two self-designed face masks and hid it in the security room without his reliever Joseph Yeboah noticing it. The complainant arrived home at about 7.40pm and accused opened the gate for her.
The moment complainant entered her room, Prince immediately invited Yeboah to the house.
The two wearing a mask went into the room of the house help, one Faustina Asamani aka Auntie Adjoa, 53.
They tied her mouth with a scarf to prevent her from shouting. As she was making noise, they used a pavement block to hit her head several times until she bled to death.
They then rushed to the hall of complainant and met her working with her laptop computer where they asked her to keep quiet and surrender all the money she had else they would kill her.
Complainant opened her bag and gave them the afore-mentioned items and money. Prince and his accomplice threatened to strangle her with the electrical cord if she does not give them all her money.
They marched her to her room upstairs and robbed her of Jewelries, three rotary wrist watches, Automated Teller Machine card (ATM), and unspecified amount of pound sterling and forced the complainant to give them the ATM password which she obliged.
The woman however screamed for help and by the time some other residents came to the crime scene, Prince had taken to his heels.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak