An auto mechanic who forcibly defiled two minors at Frara in the Greater Accra Region, has been sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment in hard labour by an Accra circuit court, presided over by Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku.
The convict, Edem Komla, is reported to have lured the two victims – aged 12 years each – into his shop and had sex with them, hitting them in the process when they rejected his advances.
He was said to have given the victims GH¢10 to travel to their hometown in the Volta Region after their grandmother had threatened to beat them when they returned home late from a friend’s house.
Komla reportedly took advantage of the victims’ situation when they asked him for the money, and he in turn told them it was late and so they should spend the night at his shop.
He was hauled before the court for two counts of defiling children under 16 years of age.
He pleaded guilty to the charges and was convicted on his own plea.
When asked by the court whether he had anything to say before he was sentenced, Komla pleaded for mercy.
He said he did not force the victims and also denied hitting any of them during the act.
Mrs. Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku then jailed him 10 years for each count – both to run consecutively.
The prosecution, led by ASP Agnes Boafo, told the court that the complainant is the mother of one of the victims, whiles the other victim is a niece to the complainant.
She said both victims stay with their grandmother at Frara in Accra.
ASP Boafo told the court that on January 10, 2018 at about 8:30 pm, the complainant received a phone call from her mother that the victims were missing, and all efforts to search for them that day proved futile.
The prosecutor asserted that the complainant received a phone call the following day that the victims were spotted at the Tema lorry park and when they were questioned, they said they were waiting for a vehicle for the Volta Region.
The complainant and her brother then rushed to the lorry park to bring the victims home.
ASP Agnes Boafo stated that the victims narrated the ordeal they had gone through in a friend’s house where they went to copy notes but when they returned home their grandmother threatened to beat them because they returned late.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak