Pastor sentenced for assault

A 36-year-old pastor at Kpalsi, a suburb of Tamale, has been sentenced to 60 days in prison with hard labour for physically assaulting a 15-year-old girl.

Pastor Daniel Appiah Antwi was found guilty by the Tamale District Court for whipping the girl with a computer cable, resulting in a deep cut on her head.

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Commander of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr Emmanuel Holortu, said the victim was an orphan who lived with her cousin, the pastor’s wife, as a house help.

He said a few weeks ago, the couple travelled and left their child under the care of the victim, with a five-kilogramme bag of rice and some tubers of yam to sustain them while they were away.

Pastor angry

He said the couple returned a week later. When the pastor found out that all the food items were finished, out of anger he unplugged a cable from his computer and beat the girl with it.

Mr Holortu said the pastor, who was very angry at the girl, claiming she had misused the food items, refused to take her to hospital, as he wanted her to suffer the pain so that she would learn a lesson from her act.

“Some members of the community reported the case to the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), which in turn referred it to the unit, where, after investigations, the suspect was arrested,” he said.

He explained that the victim revealed that she had been abused, both physically and sexually, by the pastor on countless occasions, as the pastor threatened to harm her if she told her cousin.

Work of the devil

He added that the pastor, who had initially said the allegation was a plot against him by his enemies, later admitted committing the offence and blamed the devil for it.

Meanwhile, the pastor has pleaded not guilty to defilement in court and will reappear on August 10.

Mr Holortu said the girl was temporarily living in another place and that the police were looking up to the court to direct her future custody.

Source: Graphiconline