A Nigerian ICT Technician, Jim Clifford Edward, who impregnated his daughter at Santa maria in Accra, has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by an Accra Circuit Court.
Edward is said to have defiled the victim at the age of nine until December 26, last year.
The victim age now 14 is currently five months pregnant.
Edward’s wife is said to have abandoned her home after developing some mental ailment. Edward’s wife left home when their last child was two months old.
Charged with defilement and incest, Edward pleaded guilty.
The court presided over by Mrs Ruby Adjeley Quaison sentenced Edward to 10 years on the charge of defilement and five years on the charge of incest. Sentences are to run concurrently.
Handing the down the sentence, the trial judge stated that Edward should have been a father to the victim and not husband.
Edward told the court that he regrets his actions saying “it would not happen again.”
According to Edward they were in a foreign land and he is the only one that his three kids have and sentencing him would bring to the children untold hardship.
He, therefore, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy.
The Prosecution led by Sergeant Opoku Aniagyei, informed the court that the Police would be contacting the Nigerian Embassy in Ghana in order to reach out to a member of the connvict’s family.
According to the prosecution, the Police are in touch with the Department of Social Welfare in seeking shelter for the three kids.
He said a non-governmental organization known as American Relief has expressed its readiness to support the convict’s children.
Earlier, Sergeant Aniagyei told the court that the complainant is the brother of the victim, who is currently five months pregnant and both reside at Aunty Aku near Santa Maria in Accra.
Prosecution said Edward also lives in the same house with the two, who are his biological children.
Sergeant Aniagye said the victim’s mother who is mentally deranged left home to an unknown destination and had since not returned.
Prosecution said Edward took advantage of that situation and have been having sexual intercourse with the victim since age nine and with a warning to her not to disclose this to anyone until he impregnated her at age 14.
According to the prosecution Edward after impregnating the victim continued to have sex with her and that the last sexual encounter was on December 26, last year.
Prosecution said the complainant enquired from the victim and she narrated her ordeal to him, upon which a report was made to the Domestic Violence and Victim’s Support Unit (DOVVSU) at Kaneshie.
He said a Police medical report form was issued to the complainant to send the victim to the hospital for examination.
Prosecution said when Edward was arrested he denied the offences in his investigation caution statement but later admitted it.
GNA