A 62-year-old trader has been paraded before an Accra Circuit Court for allegedly having sex with his 14-year-old daughter.
Nicolas Opoku, charged with defilement, incest, and indecent assault, pleaded not guilty to the offence and was admitted to bail in the sum of GH¢100,000 with three sureties, two to be justified by the court presided over by Mrs. Christiana Cann.
Suspect is alleged to have sexually molested the victim since 2015.
The case has been adjourned to June 20, 2022 for case management conference while the court has also ordered the prosecution to file its disclosures and serve same on the accused.
Prosecuting, Inspector Opoku Aniagyei, said the complainant was a food vender residing at Abossey Okai, Accra.
He said the victim, a Junior High School student, now resides with the complainant, who is also her mother.
The accused also resides in the same vicinity and is the ex-husband of the complainant and the father of the victim.
Prosecution said Opoku and the complainant used to live together with the victim until the two (complainant and accused) separated, when the victim was eight years old.
Between 2015 till May 2022, while the victim lived with him, they both slept in the chamber of the “chamber and hall” apartment belonging to the accused.
Prosecution said Opoku took advantage of that and inserted his finger into the vagina of the victim anytime she slept, and she would wake to see the accused in the act.
The act went on until the victim could not bear the ordeal anymore, and she informed her cousin, who also slept in the hall.
Prosecution said the cousin then moved to the chamber and the accused stopped the act.
“However, on May 13, this year, between 1500 and 1600 hours, while the victim had returned from school, and was in the bedroom removing her school uniform, the accused, also in the bedroom, ordered her to lay on the bed, undressed and had sex with the victim, prosecution said.
He said during the act, the victim felt sharp pains in her vagina and she shouted for help. The accused quickly got up and left the room.
The victim quickly locked the door and called the complainant on the phone, threatening to kill herself if she failed to go for her at her father’s house, prosecution said.
The complainant then rushed to the ex-husband’s house with two others and rescued the victim.
The complainant reported the matter to the Greater Accra Regional office of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit in the Greater Accra Region, where she was given a police medical form to send the victim to the hospital for examination and treatment.
“The accused person was later picked up by the police and after investigations,” the Prosecutor added.
BY Linda Tenyah-Ayettey