A 40-year-old mason from Aflao, Philip Fiti, has been sentenced to 15 years� imprisonment with hard labour by a Ho High Court, presided over by Mr Justice Patrick Baayeh, for attempting to murder and rob one Gladys Avoda in a church guest house at Nkwanta in the Volta Region. Fiti pleaded not guilty to both counts but changed his plea to guilty.
The sentences were to ran concurrently on each count with retrospective effect from January 28, 2009.
According to a Senior State Attorney, Mr Simon Adatsi, on January 25, 2009, Fiti and Avoda incidentally checked in at a guest house with Fiti lodging in room two and Avoda in room five.
He said shortly after checking in, the guest house attendant left for town and Fiti took advantage of the relatively quiet atmosphere and sneaked into Avoda�s room and proposed to sleep with her but she declined on the basis that she was married.
He said Fiti strangely went out to a nearby house and picked a pestle and sneaked back into her room and found her asleep.
The prosecutor said Fiti used the pestle to hit the victim�s head and blood started oozing from her nose and mouth thus rendering her unconscious.
Fiti, Mr Adatsi said, searched through Avoda�s bag and made away with GH�260 and then chartered a motorbike and bolted to Alokpatsa en route to Kabiti, both communities in the Nkwanta District.
The prosecutor said moments later Avoda gained consciousness and came out of her room with blood still oozing from the nose and mouth and cried out for help until some good-spirited persons in the neighbourhood came to her aid and took her to the Nkwanta Hospital where she was admitted.
Mr Adatsi said Fiti was pursued to Alokpatsa by some concerned citizens after they had reported the case to the police who later arrested him.
A search conducted on him revealed GH�108 being part of the money she stole from Avoda�s bag.
Fiti had been in custody since 2009 while the docket was awaiting instructions from the Attorney General�s Department.
The Attorney General�s Department ordered the transfer of the case from the District Magistrate Court to the High Court.
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