Crime & Punishment of Saturday, 25 February 2006

Source: GNA

Father jailed 25 years for impregnating daughter

Tarkwa (W/R), Feb. 25, GNA - A Tarkwa Circuit Court has sentenced a 43-year-old farmer, Kweku Tuah to 25 years imprisonment for impregnating his 18-year-old daughter.

The pregnancy is now seven months old.

Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector Jonathan Adotey told the court presided over by Mr John Ajet-Nasam that, Tuah and the daughter's mother are no longer married and the daughter was staying with her grand mother at Berekum.

He said Tuah went for the daughter and brought her to Agona, near Asankrangwa, where he (Tuah) started having sexual intercourse with her. Chief Inspector Adotey said the father and daughter relationship continued till they moved from Agona to Agege, near Tarkwa. In June 2005, Tuah sent his daughter back to his mother at Berekum, where it was detected that the girl was seven months pregnant. When asked who was responsible, she mentioned the father, saying that, the father told her in confidence that she should look for another man and give the pregnancy to him, but she refused.

The case was reported to the Nsuta Police and Tuah was arrested. When questioned Tuah admitted being responsible for the pregnancy. According to the daughter the father started having sex with her at the age of 13 with the promise that she should not disclose their relationship to anyone and that part of his property such as his building at Berekum together with a plot of land and a cocoa farm at Agege would be given to her, if she kept their affairs secret.