Teacher to spend 15 years in prison for defiling 12-year old boy
A teacher, who failed his primary responsibility of imparting knowledge to a pupil in his care, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for defiling a 12-year-old boy.
The Accra Circuit court, presided over by Christiana Cann, sentenced the 30-year-old teacher, Seth Kwabena Anim, on his plea.
He pleaded guilty to defiling the 12-year-old junior high school pupil of Achimota school.
Anim was arraigned and charged with the offence of defiling a child under 16 years of age contrary to section 101(2) of the Criminal Offences Act 1960, (Act 29).
The facts of the case, as presented to the court by the prosecution led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Agnes Boafo, are that the complainant [name withheld] is a receptionist at Mplaza Hotel at Roman Ridge and lives at New Achimota in Accra.
The accused person, according to the prosecutor, is a teacher at a private school at New Achimota and lives at Akweteman, a suburb of Accra.
DSP Boafo told the court that, on June 6, around 6:50 pm, the complainant returned from town and found that her son, who is the victim, had not done his school’s online assignment.
She told the court that the victim had not taken his bath which also got the mother angry.
The prosecutor said, the complainant became annoyed and collected the smartphone she bought for the victim for failing to do his assignment.
DSP Boafo added that the complainant decided to open the phone to see if it was because her son was deeply grossed in WhatsApp chat hence his failure to do his assignment.
Rather, she ended up seeing a video in which two people were having sex.
Alarmed by the scene on the phone, the complaint asked the victim about the source of the video and he responded that it is his teacher.
According to the prosecution, the complainant “became afraid and said to herself, a teacher having a relationship with my son?
The complainant asked his son what the teacher has been doing with him.
The victim’s mother said the accused started to chat with her son since March, which made her invite him to the house to help with the victim’s school assignments.
On three occasions, while he was helping the victim with his homework, the accused inserted his penis in the victim’s anus, the prosecution said.
On June 10, the complainant saw that the accused person had begun chatting with the victim again on phone.
The conversation was about the accused coming home, for his regular sexual escapades.
The complainant had advised the victim to ask the accused to come for him to be arrested. She then informed witnesses of the development and asked them to be alert and arrest the accused if he should make it to the house.
As per the arrangement, the following day, which was June 11, around 11:30 am, the accused came to the house to have an affair with the victim.
The moment the accused entered the complainant’s living room, he removed his attire leaving his boxer shorts.
In the event of removing the victim’s attire, the victim coughed, signalling the witnesses who were then hiding in the kitchen to come out.
They then rushed to the living room and arrested the accused. The accused knelt and started pleading for forgiveness.
The complainant was informed of the accused arrest, and they subsequently called the police from the Regional Police Headquarters, who picked the accused to the Regional CID for further investigation.
Upon interrogation, the accused admitted the offence in his caution statement and stated that he has had unnatural carnal knowledge with the victim in the complainant’s living room on two occasions and not three times as victim said.
He added that he does not know what made him do that.
Medical forms were then issued to the victim to attend to hospital for treatment.
After investigation, accused was charged with the offence.