MAN, 35, DEFILES GIRL, 11 (MIRROR, PAGE 27, OCT 9)

From Samuel Duodu, Fiapre

A 35-year-old worker of Zoomlion Limited Company, a private waste management company, who took advantage of an 11-year-old pupil to defile her on five occasions has come face to face with the law.
Kwaku Mensah, who has been charged for defilement, was alleged to have lured the victim, a yam hawker, with the intention of cooking some of the yams he had bought from her to abuse her.
The innocent girl had been sent by her parents to go and sell yams after school when the accused took advantage of her to sexually abuse her.
Mensah, who is standing trial at the Fiapre Circuit Court, presided over by Mr Justice Benjamin Osei Owusu, pleaded not guilty to the charge and was remanded to reappear on October 7, 2009.
The facts of the case, as presented by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Kwaku Amoako, who is also the Brong Ahafo Regional Police Commander in charge of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), were that the accused lives at Fiapre Zongo, while the victim resides at the centre of Fiapre.
He said on September 19, 2009 when the complainant in the case returned from work, his son told him that the victim had informed him that any time she went out to sell yams, a certain man slept with her at the Fiapre Zongo area.
The prosecutor said the complainant called the victim to enquire from her whether what he had been told by his son was true. She confirmed the story and told him that the accused had slept with her on five different occasions.
He said based on the information, the victim led the complainant and two others to Mensah’s house, where she identified the accused.
DSP Amoako stated further that the complainant, with the assistance of the two others, arrested Mensah and took him to the Sunyani Police Station, where he was detained for further investigations.
He told the court that the victim was sent to the Regional Hospital in Sunyani where a medical examination on her confirmed that she had been defiled.
DSP Amoako said Mensah, in his caution statement to the police, denied the offence but admitted that he had been buying yams from her and that she had refused to cook them for him.