Tema, Sept 23, GNA - Three suspected criminals who escaped from the Tema Community Two police cells on October 2, 2008 have been sentenced to four years imprisonment each by the Tema Circuit Court 'A'. Mathew Donkor, David Asampana and Simon Frimpong were sentenced to four years imprisonment each on two counts of causing unlawful harm and escaping from lawful custody. The presiding judge, Mrs Lorinda Owusu, sentenced them after Asampana and Frimpong changed their initial plea of not guilty to guilty, and prayed the court to deal with them leniently since they were suffering in the cells.

The court also remanded into police custody Alfred Kofi Adevor who pleaded not guilty to the two charges. He would re-appear on October 26. The case for the prosecution was that the convicts, the accused person and Sumalia Adams who is at large, were all remand prisoners at the Tema Community Two Police Station cells facing criminal charges including robbery.

The prosecution told the court that on October 2 last year, the policeman at the station opened the cells gate to take the rubbish can for disposal.

But Adevor and Donkor and the three others hit him in the face and he fell down unconscious. Adevor wounded one the police detectives on night duty who tried to re-arrest him. Donkor was re-arrested in front of the charge office while the others were arrested later. 23 Sept 09