Accra, Sept. 11, GNA - A Circuit Court A in Accra, on Thursday sentenced a 28-year-old labourer, who was among a gang of three young men who gagged and defiled a 15-year-old girl, to 10 years imprisonment in hard labour. Kwaku Ayim, a.k.a. Killer, pleaded not guilty but the court presided over by Mrs. Georgina Mensah-Dasta found him guilty and convicted him. The convict insisted he was not guilty and was advised to appeal against the judgment if he so wished. Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) George Abavelim, told the court that the accused defiled the girl on June 30 at Ashongman in Accra.

Prosecution said at about 1000 hours on that day, the victim, who lives with her uncle, was sent to purchase items from a nearby shop. ASP Abavelim said Ayim and two others who had apparently laid ambush for the girl, suddenly grabbed her, dragged her into an uncompleted building and sexually abused her in turns. Prosecution said Ayim and the two others hit her neck with a stick when she attempted to shout and threatened to stab her with a knife should she make any more noise.

ASP Abavelim said they culprits abandoned the victim to her fate while she was bleeding and took to their heels. Prosecution said the girl went to the woman who assisted her to go back home. ASP Abavelim said the girl was sent to the hospital for treatment and medical report confirmed that she was sexually abused. On July 1, Ayim was arrested and identified by the victim as one of the persons who sexually assaulted her.