Kumasi, Aug. 3, GNA - The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA)

Circuit Court, has remanded into prison custody, a 28-year-old

Accra-based gym instructor for rape and robbery. Heavily-built, Eric Adjei Bawuah is accused of raping at knife-point, a

19-year-old apprentice seamstress at dawn at Asafo in Kumasi. The victim was on her way to the Neoplan Station in Kumasi to join a bus to Accra when she was snatched into a taxi by the accused and later raped her.

He pleaded not guilty and would re-appear on Wednesday, August 5, 2009. Nana Akua Adu-Gyamfi, a State Attorney, told the court presided over by Mr Adjei Frimpong that on July 29, this year at about 0400 hours, the victim, who residents at Nungua in Accra, was heading towards the Asafo Neoplan Station to board a vehicle after visiting her sister in Kumasi.

He said all of a sudden, Bawuah surfaced from nowhere, grabbed her hands and pulled her into a taxi he had signaled to stop. The accused, who had all this while pulled a knife, ordered the driver to drive them to a nearby washing bay. At the bay, he dragged the helpless lady to a drinking spot and

ignoring her scream, tore into shreds the pair of trousers she was wearing

and forcibly had sex with her. The victim's continued screaming attracted the attention of some neighbours who quickly alerted the police. Nana Adu-Gyamfi said the police responded swiftly and arrested

Bawuah right in the act. She told the court that during interrogation, Bawuah admitted raping

the victim but denied robbing her of her GH¢30. 3 Aug. 09