Akim Swedru (E/R), Feb. 10 GNA - Job Arthur, 58, a farmer who lured a nine-year-old girl to a nearby cocoa farm at Akim Osoroase near Achiase, to forcibly have sexual intercourse with, has been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment in hard labour, by the Akim Swedru Circuit Court in the Eastern Region. Having achieved his desire to have sex with her on two occasions, Arthur asked the girl not to inform anyone of the ordeal, else she would die.

Mr. Kofi Akrowiah, the presiding judge described the incident as nasty and a cruel act perpetrated the man on a little girl. The convict pleaded guilty to defilement.

Presenting the facts of the case, Police Chief Inspector Kwaku Appiah stated that both Arthur and the victim live in the same vicinity at Akim Osoroase, adding that, for sometime, Arthur who jokingly called the girl "my wife" occasionally gave her some "coins". Chief Inspector Appiah said the grandmother of the victim, who is a fetish priestess, detected that the girl was bleeding from her private part and when asked, the girl did not disclose her ordeal, however, her grandmother treated her.

According to the Prosecutor, on December 20, last year Arthur again lured the girl to the same nearby cocoa farm and repeated the sexual act with the girl who later bled profusely. The grandmother again detected and confronted the victim and this time, she reluctantly disclosed her ordeal. She also informed the girl's father who made a report to the police for Arthur's arrest, while the police issued a medical form for the girl to attend hospital.