A circuit court in Accra has sentenced a man who defiled his step-daughter to 20 years imprisonment.
The man, Eric Kofitse, according to the prosecution has been having sexual intercourse with the girl (13 years) since 2019.
Eric also threatened his victim not to report the sexual activities to anyone.
The prosecution further added that, after a period of not being able to bear with the situation, the victim reported the incident to her mother.
The mother of the victim, upon hearing about her daughter’s ordeal, sent her (victim) away to her aunty and later to the father where she was found to be seven weeks pregnant.
The convict, during the trial, pleaded guilty to the charge.
Defilement cases up by 26%; Greater Accra, Ashanti tops
Defilement cases in Ghana went up by 25.7% in the year 2017.
Statistics from the Ghana Police service show that the Greater Accra Region recorded the highest number of such cases in the year under review.
According to the Annual Crime statistics released by the Ghana Police Service, a total of 1,686 defilement cases were recorded nationwide in 2017 compared to 1,341 recorded in the previous year.
The report said the Greater Accra Region recorded 534 cases which show a 73.4 percent increase compared to the 308 cases recorded in 2016.
The Ashanti Region followed with 209 cases, Central Region, 176, Volta Region, 166 and Western Region 149 cases.
The rest are Eastern Region, 137, Brong Ahafo Region, 132, Tema, 93, Northern Region, 50, Upper East 25 and Upper West recorded the lowest number of cases, 15 in all.
Rape cases, however, did not go up that much increasing by 3 percent compared to the previous year.
Per the Annual Crime Statistics, whereas a total of 497 rape cases were recorded in 2016, the figure went up to 514 in 2017.
Many have complained that most rape and defilement cases are not reported due to the stigmatization of the victim or the status of the suspect in society.
There are complaints that even with such cases that are reported, the family of the victims discontinues the cases in court.
Some have also accused the police of not investigating rape and defilement cases thoroughly.
