John Kwame Annan, a 36-year-old farmer, who defiled and allegedly killed his 14-year-old stepdaughter, has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in hard labour by a circuit court in Cape Coast.
However, the Attorney General’s Department has taken the alleged murder case up to the High Court to begin the necessary proceedings.
Annan pleaded not guilty to the charge of defilement and the court, presided over by Mrs Dorinda Smith Arthur, found him guilty after full trial.
Prosecuting, Chief Inspector John Asare Bediako, told the court that Annan, a married man, lived with his five children at Manford near Apam in the Central Region.
The deceased also lived with her mother at Asona near Nkawkaw in the Eastern Region.
Sometime in 2017, Annan left his family and traveled to Asona in search of a white-collar job, where he met the deceased’s mother, Madam Afia Boakyewaa, fell in love with her, and later moved in to stay with her and the daughter.
Annan started having sexual affair with an elder sister of the deceased as well as the mother and this came to the attention of Madam Boakyewaa’s family, as a result of which he was banished from the town after he had confessed to sleeping with mother and daughter.
Chief Inspector Bediako said Annan again travelled to settle at Twifo Praso, where he met another woman (a witness in the case), his newfound love.
In 2019, he travelled back to Asona and brought the deceased to Twifo Praso without the knowledge and permission of her parents, and introduced her to the new lover as his daughter.
However, Annan diverted his sex drive on the deceased and had secret sexual affairs with her on the blind side of his newfound love.
Chief Inspector Bediako said On Wednesday, January 01, 2020, the deceased, in the company of Annan and the new woman, went to Afedzie village near Twifo Praso to farm.
Upon reaching the farm, Annan requested the new lover to remain in a cottage while he and the girl harvested cocoyam at area of the farm.
Prosecutor said Annan managed to undress the girl and had sexual intercourse with her but she refused him a second round due to the pains she endured during the first one.
Chief Inspector Bediako said without provocation, Annan picked a cutlass, attacked and inflicted deep wounds on the girl’s forehead, leading to profuse bleeding.
The new lover, upon hearing the screams of the girl, rushed there and shouted for help, which attracted people to the scene, and Annan was arrested.
The police later went to rescue the convict from being lynched by the people but the girl died on the farm, with some whitish fluid, suspected to be sperm in her vagina.
The police photographed the body and conveyed it to Police Hospital Morgue for preservation and autopsy.
Annan was first arraigned on a provisional charge of murder, but the case was transferred from the Twifo Praso District Court to a Cape Coast circuit court.
On Tuesday, April 2020, post-mortem examination was performed on the body and the docket was forwarded to the Attorney General’s Office in Cape Coast for advice.
It advised that the convict be charged for the offence of defilement and murder.
The murder case will be handled at the High Court.