Cape Coast, Aug 22, GNA - A circuit court in Cape Coast, last Wednesday sentenced Kwame Botwe, a 31-year-old labourer, to 18 years imprisonment in hard labour for defiling a five-year old girl.

He pleaded guilty to the charge of defilement.

Inspector Daniel Agbezuhlor told the court presided over by Mr. Samuel Asare Nyarko that the convict and the victim and her parents resided at Obaako Ndidi near Apenkro in the Central Region.

The Prosecution said that on August 5 this year, when the victim and her friends were playing outside their house, Botwe lured her into his room and forcibly had sex with her.

Inspector Agbezuhlor said that the convict warned the victim not to disclose the incident to anybody but four days later, a witness told the girl's mother that she heard the victim screaming in Botwe's room.

The Prosecution said that when the victim's mother asked her why she was screaming in Botwe's room, she narrated the ordeal.

The victim's mother reported the matter to the Police and when the convict was arrested, he admitted the offence.