Crime & Punishment of Saturday, 27 July 2013

Source: Joy Online

DOVVSU rescues 3 children kept indoors for 8 years

The Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service in Madina, Accra, have rescued three children who were allegedly locked in-doors by their parents for up to eight years at Adenta.

All the three have been quarantined since birth and share their space with livestock.

Joy News' Beatrice Adu who visited the residence of the kids reports that the house looks beautiful and painted white with a garden on both sides of it.

But because it is unkempt, the place has been overgrown with weeds, she observed. The back of the house leading to the four-bedroom apartment has an animal farm filled with ducks, fowls, and sheep.

Entering the corridor leading to the room where the children were kept, one is greeted with a strong stench, a good sign of the poor conditions under which the children live.

The children’s room was an eyesore. Everyone coughs because of the foul smell there.

The children say they never bother asking to go to school because their father would spank them whenever they did. Even though they can express themselves in English they cannot write. According to them, they were taught how to speak the language by their parents.

For now, they are in a home provided by the Madina DOVVSU while investigations continue.

Their parents have also been arrested, Madina DOVVSU Commander ASP Catherine Srofenyo told Joy News.

Meanwhile, the Madina DOVVSU is appealing to the public to help trace the family of the couple. The mother Jane Mensah Lartey is from Sempe in Accra and the father Fledge Mensah Lartey is from James town also in Accra.