The victim (right)
A BOLGATANGA Circuit Court, presided over by His Worship Alexander Graham, has sent back to prison custody a 53-year old pastor accused of defiling a 13-year old girl and getting her pregnant in the process.
The suspect was said to have defiled the girl in December 2021 while she was being accommodated in the suspect’s house in Zuarungu, in the Upper East Region.
On June 17, 2022, the lawyer of the suspect, Pastor John Amoah, pleaded with the court to grant him bail but the court denied and rather remanded him in prison custody to reappear on Monday, July 4, 2022.
On Monday, July 4, the lawyer representing the accused pastor was not in court for which reason he (Pastor John Amoah) will have to continue to be in prison to reappear on Wednesday, July 13, 2022.
In an earlier appearance in court, the prosecuting officer,  Inspector Regina Ali Agong, told the court that about five years ago, the suspect was working as an administrator in the victim’s former primary school, where he assisted the victim to pay her school fees and offered her other social support.
Inspector Agong said when the victim was promoted to Junior High School, the suspect assisted her to gain admission into a different school because her primary school did not have JHS attached.
The suspect, according to Inspector Agong, then convinced the family of the victim to allow her to live with him so that he could help improve her academic performance, which the family agreed.
The girl came to stay with the suspect and his wife at their marital home at Zuarungu, which created a cordial relation between the pastor’s family and that of the girl.
In December, 2021, when the wife of the suspect had left home for Bible School, the suspect allegedly took advantage and started having sexual intercourse with the victim which resulted in pregnancy.
According to the prosecutor, the information got to the attention of the complainant, who is a staff of the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council. She then reported the case to the Upper East Regional Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service leading to the arrest of the suspect.
Upon interrogation, the suspect admitted having sexual intercourse with the victim. He was charged for defilement under the criminal Offences Act of 1960, Act 29.
FROM Ebo Bruce-Quansah