Asamankese, April 24, GNA - A 19-year-old barber has been sentenced to eight years in jail in hard labour for defiling a 15-year-old junior high school girl. Eric Sylvester Apeletey Atiagbe, who pleaded guilty with explanation, said the girl was his girlfriend. Police Inspector D. T. Nartey, prosecuting, told the Asamankese circuit court that the convict and the girl once stayed in the same vicinity at Akwatia where he proposed love to her but she turned it down. He said on March 06 Atiagbe lured the girl into an uncompleted house, pulled a knife and threatened to stab her if she refused to have sex with him.

After he had forcibly had intercourse with her, he warned her against informing anybody about the act. She did not tell anybody about it until "she missed her period" and informed her sister who told their parents. A report was made to the police and Atiagbe was arrested.