The Tarkwa Circuit Court has sentenced a 30-year-old farmer, Kwasi Zachari, also called Halidu, to 20 years’ imprisonment in hard labour for defiling a 13-year-old girl who is deaf and dumb.
He pleaded guilty to the charge of defilement and was convicted on his own plea and handed this jail term accordingly by the court presided over by Mrs Hathia Ama Manu.
The prosecution, led by Police Chief Inspector Abraham Ayitey, said the complainant, who is a trader and mother of the victim, resided at Wassa Bawdie Adonnoi in the Wassa Amenfi East Municipality, with the victim and Zachari.
On December 17, 2024, at about 7:30 a.m., the complainant left the victim in the house to a funeral service in the community.
He said Zachari, who was then returning from his landlord’s house, met the girl and engaged her with conversation by using sign language.
He continued that in the process, Zachaari lured her into an abandoned sawmill shop in the outskirts of the town and had sexual intercourse with her.
Chief Inspector Ayitey said after the act, Zachari gave the victim GH¢1.50 and took her back to the house.
The court heard that the complainant was later informed by two children in the community, aged five and six years respectively, that they saw the victim following Zachari towards the abandoned sawmill shop, so she quickly left the funeral grounds to look for her daughter.
The prosecutor said the complainant sought the assistance of her sister and the two children in looking for the daughter and while they were combing the area for the victim, they chanced upon Zachari and the children pointed at him as the one they saw with her daughter.
He said the complainant, assisted by her sister, held Zachari and demanded the whereabouts of the girl, to which he confessed to them that he had earlier had sex with her in the abandoned sawmill shop.
Chief Inspector Ayitey said they arrested Zachari, took him to the Bawdie Police Station and reported the incident to the officers on duty.
Zachari was re-arrested and detained to assist investigations, while a police medical report form was issued to the complainant to send the victim to the hospital for examination, treatment, and a report. —GNA
