Farmer Imprisoned Seven Years For Defilement

A 30-year-old farmer, Stephen Dartey has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment in hard labour for defiling a 13-year-old girl. Chief Inspector G. D. Bruce, prosecuting, told the court, presided over by Mr Kofi Akrowiah that both Dartey and the victim lived in the same neighbourhood at Bunso near Asamankese On January 29, the girl left the house to sell bread and other commodities and met Dartey during her rounds. The prosecutor said Dartey engaged her in conversation and proposed to have sex with her but she declined his proposal. He said Dartey realizing that they were at the edge of a village with no one around, pulled her into a nearby bush. He then pushed her to the ground, started struggling with her and when the girl screamed for help, the convict managed to gag her to prevent her from shouting. The prosecutor said Dartey managed to have sex with her on the ground. He said after the incident, the girl ran to the house and informed her parents, who accompanied her to the Police station to lodge a complaint. The police gave the girl a medical form for treatment at a hospital where a medical report on her proved that she had been defiled. The village's neighbourhood watch committee managed to arrest Dartey on the night of January 28. In a caution statement to the Police, Dartey admitted defiling the girl and was later charged with the offence.