A circuit court at Berekum has jailed Emmanuel Osei, unemployed, and Kwabena James, a plumber, for 22 years for defiling a 15-year-old girl.

They pleaded guilty on two counts of conspiracy to defile and defilement. Osei was sentenced to three years imprisonment on the first count and nine years on the second count, and James had three years on the first count and seven years on the second count. All the sentences were to run concurrently.

Police Chief Inspector Eric Akwaboah, told the court presided over by Mr. Isaac Bright Akwantey that the victim resided at Berekum Zongo with her parents while the convicts lived at Nyamebekyere, also a suburb of Berekum.

The prosecution said on May 20, last year, Abu took the mobile phone of the victim, when she was going to a friend at the Thursday market in the Central Business District of Berekum to collect her clothes.

Chief Insp. Akwaboah said while the victim was struggling to take her phone back, Abu held her dress, and the convicts emerged pretending to assist the girl.

The prosecuting said the convicts took advantage of the situation, and lured the girl to the market and defiled her on a table.

Chief Insp. Akwaboah told the court that the victim reported the matter to her mother, who lodged a complaint at the Police station.