A thirty-Five-Year-old palm wine tapper who took advantage of the absence of his elder brother and his wife and defiled their four-year-old daughter in the bush, has been jailed 10 years with hard labour by the Akyem Swedru Circuit Court.
Passing sentence, the presiding judge, Mr. Sampong Yaw Atta, stressed that the accused, Kwame Kudjoe, had behaved like a beast and should not live with any family member, but should be incarcerated for sometime.
Prosecuting, Inspector Kwaku Appiah said on May 2011, the father of the victim, who is the elder brother of the accused, went to farm at Akyem Wenchi in the Eastern Region to tap his palm wine while the mother also went to farm leaving the little girl in the care of Kudjoe at where they stored the drink.
He said Kudjoe lured the victim to a thatched house in the area and forcibly slept with her.
He said Kudjoe warned the victim not to reveal her ordeal to anybody else she would die.
According to the prosecutor, no sooner did her mother return from farm than she reported the incident to her.
He said the mother reported the matter to the members of the Wenchi Unit Committee, who mounted an intensive search for Kudjoe, who had then gone into hiding and managed to apprehend him in his hideout.
Inspector Appiah said they sent the accused to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) at the Oda Divisional Police Headquarters.
He stated that during police interrogation, Kudjoe admitted the offence and he was charged and put before court.
Inspector Appiah said the accused pleaded guilty at the court but pleaded with the presiding judge to deal leniently with him.
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