A nine-year-old primary three pupil who is just recovering from a surgical operation to correct a birth defect which has affected her speech has allegedly been brutally defiled by a 45-year-old
Security man at Ashaiman, a suburb of Accra.

The victim (name withheld), who is currently out of school and receiving medical attention as a result of the ordeal, narrated that on Friday, May 20, 2016, the suspect, whose name she gave as Charles – a security man at the Baraka Policy Institute, sent her on an errand to buy him bissap drink, popularly known as ‘sobolo’.

According to her, when she returned with the drink, Charles allegedly tied her up with sponge and defiled her.

“When I returned with the drink, he tied my hands and legs with a sponge in the room (pointing to the security post they shared a wall with) and he inserted his fingers here (pointing to her private part)”, she narrated.

She continued that after the act, she began to bleed on the floor, which she claimed the suspect cleaned with a mop.

“There was blood on the floor so he cleaned it with a mob”, she said.
When asked to describe anything she saw at the security post where the act took place, she narrated that a big bag was hanged on the wall with only table in the room.

Asked why she did not report the incident to her mother, she repeated a popular line that most rapists tell their victims: “He told me i will die if i told anyone”.

Mrs Lydia Senanu , the victim’s mother, told Weekend Finder that when her daughter started running temperature the day after the incident, she least suspected that her daughter had been defiled.

She said she became worried when all medication she administered on her daughter did not yield any positive results.

However, she became alarmed when she noticed that the girl was bleeding profusely from her private part.

“I was afraid because i did not know what could make a nine-year-old girl bleed like that”, she narrated.

She said it was upon interrogation that the girl finally opened up on the ordeal and named the alleged culprit.

A medical report from the Pentecost Hospital at Madina Estates confirmed that girl has been sexually abused.

When Weekend Finder contacted the medical doctor who examined the girl at the hospital, he confirmed that although the incident was reported at the hospital three days after the incident, his examination indicated that the “girl had been tampered with”.

The suspect has subsequently been arrested and is in police cells at the Madina Police Station.

Uneasy road to justice

Getting justice for this nine-year-old girl has not been an easy task for a single mother who is wiping sweat to pay medical bills and prescriptions for her abused daughter and commuting to and from the police station in pursuit of justice.

According to the victim’s mother, after reporting the case to the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service, she has come under pressure from some officers of the unit to settle the case out of court.

She said she was advised by the police that allowing the case to go to court would not inure to her benefit as the culprit would only be jailed, leaving her with nothing to take care of her child and the medical expenses she has incurred so far.

Michael, a close pal of the suspect, confirmed to this reporter, who posed as an uncle to the victim that he was asked by an officer at the Madina DOVVSU to broker a deal with the victim’s mother and conclude on an amount so the issue could be settled out of court.

Michael, who claims to have known the suspect for close to five years, said although his friend has denied committing the crime, he is desperate and willing to settle the case out of court.

DSP Christian Amuzu-Srofenyoh, DOVVSU Co-ordinator, Madina Division, told Weekend Finder on Wednesday that all investigations have been concluded and awaiting the Judicial Service to resume work from their strike to start prosecution.

She indicated that although there is always pressure on them for such cases to be settled out of court, she has always stood her grounds that the law takes its course.

The victimised now public enemy

The resolve of the victim’s mother to allow the case to go to court has courted her enemies in the area where she lives.

According to her, her neighbours have strangely turned against her accusing her of fabricating the rape story and falsely accusing an innocent person of rape.

I had to fight with one of them the other day. I asked them if they would have kept quiet if it were their child who had been raped. Even at the police station, they are indifferent towards me”, she said.