Driver’s Mate Jailed 13 Years

An 18-year-old driver’s mate, Alfred Owusu, will spend the next 13 years in jail for defiling a 13-year-old girl.

This was after an Accra circuit court found him guilty of taking advantage of the absence of the victim’s guardians to engage in that reprehensible act with her.

Giving her verdict, the trial judge Mrs. Rita Agyemang-Budu, said the prosecution team, led by Chief Inspector J.B. Asante, was able to prove the guilt of the accused person beyond reasonable doubt.

She said witnesses called by the prosecution, including the victim, were consistent and credible in their respective evidences as well as cross-examinations.

According to her, Alfred Owusu, even though denied the offence in his examination in-chief, failed to convince the court on his innocence of the charge leveled against him and said she found him guilty and sentenced him accordingly.

Narrating events leading to the arrest of the accused person, the prosecutor, J.B. Asante, said the complainant, Ernestina Addo, is a retired nurse living with the victim at Sakaman, a suburb of Accra.

He said the accused person lives in the same house with the complainant and is a driver’s mate.

According to him, on January 2, 2015, the victim started complaining of headache, stomach ache and abdominal pains and that she bled whenever she attended nature’s call.

The prosecutor said the complainant asked the victim whether she was menstruating, to which she answered in the negative and explained that it was rather the accused person who defiled her while she was bathing in December 2014.

In addition, he said the complainant confronted the driver’s mate who admitted the offence so a complaint was lodged with the police and a medical form was issued to the victim to attend hospital for treatment.

He said Alfred Owusu was subsequently apprehended.
By Fidelia Achama