The Kwabenya Circuit Court in Accra has sentenced Joshua Bledi, a 58-year-old mason into 10 years imprisonment for having sex with his daughter.
Bledi got his 17-year-old daughter pregnant in the process, and has given birth. The baby is seven months old. He was charged with incest and pleaded guilty.
During the court proceedings, the convict pleaded guilty and appealed to the court to have mercy on him, after confirming the prosecution’s narration of the incident.
The court convicted Bledi on his plea and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment, after considering his age, premeditation of the act and the fact that he did not waste the court’s time by pleading guilty to the offence.
According to Chief Inspector Gershon Togbe Achondo, who led the prosecution, the practice was becoming rampant recently.
Describing the practice as a cultural abomination, he Chief Inspector Achondo prayed the court to proffer a stiffer punishment to Bledi to serve as a deterrent to other like-minded persons.
The complainant, according to Chief Inspector Achondo, was a social worker at the Ga East Hospital.
The victim is a 17-year-old hairdresser apprentice who has a seven-month-old baby.
Prosecution said Bledi was the father of the victim and a resident of Musuku, Kwabenya in Accra.
The court heard that the victim went to deliver at the Ga East Hospital, where she couldn’t get money to pay for her medical bills, as investigation revealed.
The Social Welfare Department at the hospital intervened to waive her bill, according to the prosecution.
When enquiries were made as to who got her pregnant, the victim revealed to the complainant that Bledi, her own father, was responsible.
Prosecution said the victim further stated that the accused had been having countless sexual intercourse with her since her mother asked her to live with him.
Following the revelations, a report was, however, made to the Kwabenya Domestic Violence and Victims’ Support Unit and a Police medical report was issued for the victim to be examined at the hospital, based on which the accused was arrested.
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