Father Before Court For Defiling Daughter

A 44-year-old father accused of allegedly defiling his biological daughter repeatedly for two years has been remanded by the Accra Circuit Court. The court remanded Solomon Addae Mensah, an electrician, to reappear on September 23, 2014. Standing trial on three counts of defilement, incest and assault, the accused person pleaded not guilty to the charges. Even though the accused person denied defiling his daughter upon his arrest on July 11, 2014 and claimed he only assaulted her physically, the court heard that the victim confided in her class teacher that she had been sexually assaulted by her father on many occasions. Facts of the case Prosecuting, Assistant Superintendent of Police, (ASP) Adiza Suleman, said the teacher, after hearing the story of the teenager, reported the case to the Kaneshie Division of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service. According to ASP Suleman, the father of the victim sexually abused her when she was 11 year old and usually told her to not inform anyone about it. It is reported that Mensah Addae threatened his daughter with a gun and gave her a whitish substance believed to be narcotic drug before each sexual assault. ASP Suleman said the victim, now 13, who could no longer bear the ordeal, informed her class teacher. At the police station, she said, the victim was issued a medical form and was taken to the hospital. Background Upon the arrest of the accused person, police investigations showed that the victim had assault marks all over her body, while there was a discharge from her private parts. According to the Kaneshie Division Coordinator of DOVVSU, Deputy Superintendent of Police Ms Anita Abrakwa, the victim, whose mother died when she was seven years, lived in the same house with her father and her stepmother in the Kaneshie Estates. After the victim�s mother died she lived with a family friend until she was 11 when her father went for her to live with him. �But as soon as she moved in with her father, he started having canal knowledge of her under threat,� she said. According to Ms Abrakwa, �the victim said she had been subjected to many sexual bouts since she was 11 but her father had put fear in her to not inform anyone�. He was said to have threatened to kill his daughter and dump her body in a manhole if she ever told anyone about the act. �But the victim, after one of those sexual assaults, could not bear the pain and threats any longer and reported her ordeal to her teacher,� the DOVVSU coordinator added. Medical report The victim produced tattered panties which she said her father tore into shreds as he attempted to force her into having sex with him. Ms Abrakwa said a medical report form was immediately issued to the victim and an examination at the Police Hospital indicated that her hymen had been broken. She said when the police searched the residence of the suspect, the gun he had been using to threaten his daughter could not be found, but a mask was retrieved. On the advice of the Social Welfare Department, the victim now lives with her class teacher until the court decides on the case.