PORTER REMANDED FOR DEFILEMENT (PAGE 30)

Story: George Ernest Asare, Kumasi

A Kumasi Circuit Court presided over by Justice Ernest Yao Obimpeh, has remanded a 25-year-old porter in police custody for two weeks to facilitate investigations into a case in which the suspect is alleged to have defiled a six-year-old girl at a secluded area of the Kumasi Central Market last week.
The suspect, Charles Akwasi Annor, who is a native of Begoro, but resides in Kumasi, was alleged to have lured the six year old girl into the secluded area at the market, and after sexually abusing her , warned her not to disclosed what happened to anybody or risk being killed.
A few hours after her ordeal, the girl started experiencing severe pains in her vagina while some whitish fluid also started flowing from her vagina and this alarmed her grandmother.
When her grandmother questioned her, the girl mentioned the name of the suspect as the one who sexually abused her, so the grandmother reported the incident to the police.
A medical form was issued to the victim to attend hospital and the report proved that she had been sexually abused. The police then arrested the suspect and after investigations charged him with defiling the six-year-old girl.
The plea of Charles Akwasi Annor was not taken when he appeared before the Circuit Court, and the court remanded him in police custody for two weeks to enable the police to continue their investigations into the case.
Chief Inspector Owusu Manu, who prosecuted the case told the court that, the mother of the victim was a porter at the Central Market, where the suspect also worked as a porter.
He said on December 14, 2007, the victim was left in the care of her grandmother when her mother went out to transact business, and in the course of the day, the suspect was seen playing with the girl.
He added that the suspect took advantage of his interaction with the little girl and later lured her into a secluded area in the market where he was alleged to have sexually abused her.
Chief Inspector Owusu Manu said immediately after the act, the suspect sternly warned the victim never to disclose what had happened to anyone because she would surely die if she did.
He said around 7p.m. the same day, while the grandmother was bathing the victim, she detected that the little girl was in severe pains and some whitish fluid was flowing from her vagina. When she questioned the victim she mentioned the name of the suspect as the one who sexually abused her.
He said armed with this information, the grandmother reported the case to the police who issued her with a form for medical examination.
Mr Manu said when the medical report confirmed that the little girl had been sexually molested, the police arrested the suspect and after investigations, he was charged with the offence.