INCEST: FATHER JAILED 15 YEARS (MIRROR, LEAD STORY)

From Samuel Duodu, Fiapre

A farmer at Odumase, near Sunyani, saw in his 10-year-old daughter a better “wife” and therefore decided to pack off his wife from the matrimonial home.
For six months, 45-year-old Atoyah Awure, sexually abused his daughter until a good Samaritan, whom the victim went to for medication for abdominal pains, blew the lid off the issue.
Last Tuesday, the Fiapre Circuit Court in the Sunyani West District of the Brong Ahafo Region, presided over by Mr Benjamin Osei Yaw, sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour after a trial that lasted two-and-half years.
Awure, who warned the victim not to tell anyone, or else he would kill her, pleaded not guilty to all three counts of indecent assault, defilement and incest, but he was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment on each count. The sentence is to run concurrently.
The facts of the case, as presented by the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and the Regional Commander of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Police Service, Mr Kwaku Amoako, were that Awure consistently picked a quarrel with the victim’s mother and finally sent her away in May 2006, leaving the daughter behind.
He said the convict then started to sexually abuse his daughter and warned her not to tell anyone or else he would kill her.
DSP Amoako said on October 5, 2006, the victim, who could not withstand the abdominal pains, went to a key witness in the case for medication. The police had hint of the case and followed up to the victim’s school, where, in the presence of the assistant headmaster, she confirmed her ordeal.
DSP Amoako said the victim was sent to the Regional Hospital for examination and a report submitted on her read: “Vaginal discharge, hymen broken, vagina admits one finger freely, evidence of penetration”.
He told the court that on October 6, 2006, the convict was arrested and charged with the offences after investigations.
DSP Amoako told the court that the victim had since been handed over to the Department of Social Welfare for temporary custody.