Kumasi, Oct.29, GNA- A circuit court in Kumasi, has sentenced Dennis Somey, a 45-year-old labourer, to 15 years in jail in hard labour for defiling a 10-year-old girl.

Somey who pleaded guilty to the charge of defilement was convicted on his own plea.

Police Chief Inspector Comfort Baffour-Kyei told the court presided over by Mr. R.M. Kogyapwah that the convict, who was staying at Dadientem in the Ejisu-Juabeng District, where the victim and her mother also resided, had a good relationship with the family. She said the victim's mother occasionally engaged Somey to clear weeds around her house.

The court heard that about a month ago, when the woman sent the girl to her grandmother at Manhyia near Ejisu, the convict lured her into his room, forcibly had sex with her and threatened the victim with a knife not to disclose the incident to anyone.

Chief Inspector Baffour-Kyei said two days after the incidence, the convict again lured her into a nearby bush where he was working and sexually assaulted her.

Prosecution said on September 29, this year, the victim wanted to take refuge with the grandmother for fear of been beaten by her mother for pouring soup on the face of her younger sister.

Chief Inspector Baffour-Kyei said the girl could not get to the grandmother because the Somey lured her into his room where she spent the night with the convict, who again had sex with her. Prosecution said when the girl's mother found the girl in Somey's room, he asked the victim to escape through the window but that failed.