The form one student of Otinibi M A Basic Junior High School (JHS) who confessed at an Accra circuit court that he robbed a lady of her belongings in order to raise money to register for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), was yesterday sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in hard labour.
The trial judge, Francis Obiri, had deferred sentencing to yesterday because he ordered the investigator in the case to conduct further investigation into the background of the accused person.
This was after the accused person, Hilton Nii Sowah, had pleaded guilty with explanation to the charge of robbery on his first appearance in court.
The prosecution stated that the accused person on December, 1, 2014 robbed one Cynthia Asondek, a nurse at North Legon Hospital, of her Samsung Galaxy S3 mobile phone valued at GH¢1,500 at Malejor, near Oyibi in the Greater Accra Region.
Inspector Martin Acheampong said at about 7pm on the aforementioned date, the complainant was walking home when Nii Sowah suddenly pulled a cutlass and asked her to surrender her mobile phone a few meters to her house.
Prosecution stated that the complainant refused to surrender her phone, adding that the accused person then pushed the complainant to the ground and forcibly took the mobile phone and bolted.
Inspector Acheampong said Cynthia, who was in pain, shouted and her sister, Nora Asondek, came out of the house to rescue her.
She subsequently sent her to the hospital and lodged a complaint with the police.
The police officer indicated that on December 3, Nii Sowah, upon police intelligence, was arrested at his school and a search conducted in his room revealed 14 unserviceable mobile phones together with Cynthia's Samsung Galaxy S3 mobile phone, but her SIM card had been removed.
Inspector Acheampong further told the court that the accused person admitted the offence in his caution statement.
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By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson