A fisherman who raped and robbed a woman in the presence of her two children at Banana Inn, Accra, has been sentenced to 40 years imprisonment.
Charged with robbery, Emmanuel Tetteh aka 666, Escoba, Commetey, pleaded not guilty before an Accra Circuit Court.
The Court presided over by Isaac Addo at the end of the trial, found Tetteh guilty and sentenced him accordingly.
Tetteh is currently serving six years imprisonment for stealing money and a mobile phone. The phone, which had a tracking device, led to his arrest.
The trial judge in sentencing Tetteh considered the premeditated way the act was done.
It noted that at the point of robbing the victim, the accused had sexual intercourse with the victim in the presence of her two daughters, aged three and five years.
Again, the accused committed the offence while the instant case was pending at Circuit Court 10 in Accra.
It said with such a criminal mind, the accused did not deserve to live within society, and he must be kept away for a long time.
Prosecution led by Chief Inspector Jonas Lawer said looking at the antecedent of the accused, the severest of sentence should be passed on him.
During the trial, the prosecution called two witnesses while the accused called his wife as a defence witness.
The facts before the court were that the complainant’s name withheld resides at Abolo Bridge, a suburb of Banana Inn, while the accused convict was a resident of Chorkor.
On June 23, 2022, at about 6am, the complainant came to the Police Station and reported that, the same day, she slept off on her sofa at the hall and woke up around 3am.
Prosecution said when the complainant woke up, she saw her sliding window together with the burglar proof on the main door opened.
The court heard that the complainant thought it was her daughter who had left them open, so she called her to come and close them only for the accused to come from her bedroom with a knife to her throat.
Prosecution said the accused asked her to keep quiet and lie down and hand over her Samsung Galaxy A12 mobile phone valued GHC900 which was beside her.
According to prosecution, the accused person knelt beside her and fondled her. He asked her to lead him to where she kept her money.
The prosecution said the accused gave his orders to the complainant in Ga Language.
The prosecutor said the complainant’s money was in her bedroom, so the accused followed her with the knife to the bedroom where he robbed her of cash in the sum of GHC2,090 together with another unspecified amount of money.
After robbing her of the phone and money, accused had sex with the complainant after giving her a hefty slap when she declined.
“After raping her, he used the bed sheet beside her to clean his penis and bolted,” the prosecution said.
According to the prosecution, at the scene, it was observed that a similar modus operandi was used by the accused in other criminal adventures as captured in cases before the Adjabeng District Court Circuit Court 10 in Accra.
Prosecution on July 15, 2024, the complainant pointed out the accused in an identification parade.
GNA