LOTTO OPERATOR DEFILES GIRL, 7 (MIRROR, PAGE 20 JULY 24, 2010)

From George Ernest Asare, Kumasi

A Kumasi High Court presided over by Justice R.C Azumah has convicted a 35 year old lotto operator to serve seven a year jail term for sexually abusing a seven year old primary school pupil.
The convict, Gilbert Abeiku Ansah, who was arrested early in January 2009, was jailed after almost one and a half years’ trial.
After sexually molesting the girl , Abeiku Ansah sternly warned her not to disclose her ordeal to her mother who was a family friend.
A few days after her ordeal, the victim took ill, causing her mother to send her for a medical check up, a situation that caused the medical officer to detect that the girl had been sexually abused.
It was at this period that the girl disclosed the news to her mother who in turn reported to the police for them to arrest Abeiku Ansah who had by then gone into hiding.
A State Attorney, Mr Emmanuel Lawrence Otoo-Boison, who prosecuted, told the court that the victim who is seven years old and stays at Ahenema Kokoben, near Kumasi, is a close friend to the daughter of the convict.
He said as a result of the friendship, the victim and her friend had been visiting each other’s house at regular intervals, making it possible for the convict to take advantage to plan on how to sexually molest her.
He said one afternoon in January 2009, when the victim was returning from an errand, the convict saw her and invited her into his room and sexually molested her, warning her afterwards that she would die mysteriously if she revealed the ordeal she had gone through to her mother.
Mr Otoo-Boison said after her ordeal, the victim kept it to herself until her health started deteriorating at a faster rate, a situation that caused her mother to seek medical treatment.
He said it was at the hospital that the medical officer detected that the girl had been sexually molested, and prompted the mother to report to the police .
He said when the convict got wind that the victim had been admitted to the hospital, he went into hiding but the police succeeded in arresting him from his hide out and after investigations, he was charged with an offence of defiling a girl.