Cop Interdicted Over Defilement

Lance Corporal Emmanuel Bartels
The Ghana Police Service has interdicted the officer who allegedly defiled and impregnated a girl believed to be 12 years old.

Lance Corporal Emmanuel Bartels, who was said to be the bodyguard of Communications Minister, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, is believed to have impregnated the JHS student after allegedly defiling her three times in her father’s house.

According to the victim who schools at St Joseph’s Catholic School, the policeman, attached to the National Protection Unit at the Police Headquarters but stationed at the 37 Mobile Pot, impregnated her.

The father of the girl, Mawunyegah Quarshie, thinks the police are not doing enough to bring their man to book.

But the Accra Regional Police spokeswoman, ASP Afia Tenge, says the officer would not be shielded.

She said, ‘When the conduct of the police was reported, he was interdicted right away,’

The victim said   the officer forced himself on her anytime her father left the house – as he (officer) was a tenant in the house.

She said she did not inform her father about the issue due to fear of being beaten.

There is however, some confusion about the real age of the victim.

Although the father says she is 12 years old, a medical assessment shows that she might be 17.

ASP Tenge had indicated that the controversy over the age of the victim would be referred to the Attorney General’s Department for advice.

‘Now the issue here is, the father of the victim says she is 12 years but a medical examination shows that she is 17. We believe that this issue of controversy over the age of the victim has to be sent to the Attorney General’s office for advice,’ she added.

The family of the victim has questioned the police’s readiness to pursue the case and punish the officer, but ASP Tenge says ‘the police will not get anything in trying to shield one of our own, if it has to do with the abuse of a child.

‘We ourselves have paraded officers of the service who have misconducted themselves in one way or the other. So if this case has come to our attention, what is the need for us in shielding the officer?’