Evangelist Bags 15yrs For Defiling Step-Daughter, 10

The Takoradi Circuit Court B has sentenced an evangelist to 15 years imprisonment for defiling the girlfriend�s 10-year-old daughter on two separate occasions. The convict, Evangelist Robert Kojo Mensah, 39, subjected the victim to a barrage of slaps when she resisted his advances and later inserted some substance into her private part before defiling her for the second time. The police prosecutor, Inspector Seth Ahelegbe, on Friday told the court presided over by Judge C. Nimako, that in the first instance, the convict evangelist returned home one evening from his usual rounds and met the victim, her grandmother and some children fast asleep. The evangelist then took advantage of the situation and defiled the victim in the hall where she was sleeping and threatened to kill her if she ever mentioned it to anybody. The next day the victim informed the grandmother following which the case was reported to the Kwesimintsim Police which also issued the grandmother a medical form to send the victim to the hospital. The prosecutor said the grandmother, however, failed to send the child to the hospital and also failed to report back to the police for further action. She also failed to inform the victim�s mother who had moved to her new location at Essikafoambantem No. 1, a suburb of Takoaradi where she was staying together with the evangelist-boyfriend. The victim later moved in to join the mother and Evangelist Mensah at Essikafoambantem. Inspector Ahelegbe said during her stay, the victim�s mother left the house to attend to her petty business at night when the evangelist again took advantage and defiled her for the second time. The prosecutor said the little girl resisted and Evangelist Mensah slapped her which made her fall to the floor but he pounced on her and inserted some substance into her private part to enable him defile her. The victim reported the matter to the mother on her return and when she went to urinate, a greenish substance the evangelist inserted in her came out. The case was later reported to the police. The police said the accused was later arrested after medical report confirmed the defilement and he was consequently put before court leading to his sentence. He pleaded not guilty and was taken through the full trial. Before passing sentence, the presiding judge Justice Nimako said the accused person was a culprit and the law prescribed the prison term of at least seven years and a maximum of 25 years without an option of a fine. He said the conduct of the convict was most reprehensible and unbecoming of a step-father and evangelist of the gospel and therefore sentenced him to 15 years with hard labour.