Farmer rapes 80-year-old stroke patient

"Unbelievable!" was the word on the lips of the residents of Jeketi, a village near Asesewa in the Eastern Region, when on the hot afternoon of Tuesday, February 10, word hit the town that a farmer, 20, had subjected an 80-year-old bed-ridden stroke-patient to severe assault before raping her.

The accused, Kennedy Padi, who stays in the same house with the victim at Jeketi, was said to have taken advantage of the absence of other occupants of the house to enter the old lady's room about 12 noon on February 10, 2009.

The accused, in a struggle to overpower his victim who put up a resistance, was said to have bitten her on the cheek and the breast before sleeping with her.

A friend of the victim's daughter, who was said to be passing by, was reported to have heard a strange noise coming from the old lady's bedroom, and knowing well that she (old woman) was sick, decided to enter her room, only to find the accused person in the act.

Immediately she raised an alarm, the accused person attempted to run away but he was apprehended by neighbours who rushed to the scene.

The victim's daughter, 35, who was selling a distance away, was informed that her mother had been raped and when she rushed to the house she met Padi in the victim's room.

Upon questioning, the old lady informed her daughter that she had been raped by Padi.

When the old lady's daughter confronted the accused person, he admitted committing the offence and was arrested and handed over to the police.

When contacted, the Eastern Regional Co-ordinator of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), ASP Mrs Eunice Annor, confirmed the incident and indicated that the accused, in his caution statement, had attributed his conduct to the work of the devil.

She said Padi had been charged with rape, assault and unlawful entry and arraigned before a circuit court in Koforidua, which remanded him to appear again on Monday, February 23, this year.