APPRENTICE JAILED 10 YEARS FOR DEFILEMENT (PAGE 27, MIRROR)

From Samuel Duodu, Fiapre

Events of December 28, 2007 will forever remind a couple at Penkwase, a suburb of the Sunyani Municipality of the Brong Ahafo Region, not to allow any of their children to enter any co-tenant’s room.
Their two and half-year-old daughter was on that day indecently assaulted in a co-tenant’s room when she followed a sister of the rapist into their room. However, the long arm of the law caught up with Kwadwo Kunakeh, the culprit, and he has been sentenced to 10 years jail term in hard labour.
Kunakeh, a 22-year-old apprentice mechanic, pleaded not guilty to two counts of indecent assault and defilement when the case went on trial in January, this year at the Fiapre Circuit Court, presided over by Mr Benjamin Osei Yaw.
He was cautioned and discharged on the first count of indecent assault but sentenced on the charge of defilement.
Presenting the facts of the case in court, the Regional Commander of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Police Service, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Kwaku Amoako, said on December 28, last year, at about 12:30 p.m., the victim was in the house with her mother when she saw the elder sister of the convict entering the house and she (victim) followed her into their room where the convict also sleeps.
DSP Amoako told the court that some few minutes later the victim’s mother saw the convict’s sister coming from a different direction without the victim and so she started calling her (victim) to check on her whereabouts.
He said the small girl’s mother saw her child coming out of the convict’s room and eating fried yam.
The prosecutor said the mother questioned her as to what she was doing in the room and she started pointing at her private part and mentioning the convict’s name.
DSP Amoako said this prompted the mother to examine her child and in the course of it, she saw a whitish, starchy fluid on her.
The girl’s father reported the incident to the police and the convict was arrested.
DSP Amoako said the victim’s parents were issued with a form to go to the regional hospital for a medical examination. A report submitted on the victim that same day indicated “hymen lacerated, abrasions and live spermatozoa”, confirming the defilement.