He gets seven years for impregnating 15-year-old

The Agona Swedru Circuit Court has slapped a 20-year-old man, Festus Yedu, with a seven-year jail term with hard labour for defiling and impregnating a 15-year-old girl at Gomoa Nkoransa in the Central Region.

Yedu, alias Kwasi Twoface, pleaded guilty with an explanation that he proposed love to the girl who consented so it was a matter of understanding between them.

But the presiding judge, Mr N.K.E. Osam, told him that irrespective of the fact that she consented to his proposal, the law says that once the girl is aged under 16 you have committed an offence by having sex with her".

The judge accordingly convicted Yedu on his own plea and sentenced him.

Chief Inspector Osei Adu Agyemang informed the court that the victim is staying with her aunt, one Atomo, at Gomoa Nkoransa, near Apam and that Yedu, a trader is also based in the same town.

In January 2010 Yedu proposed love to her and they began a relationship. But that relationship soon came to the notice of her aunt who warned Yedu against it on the grounds that the girl was a juvenile, so he should put a stop to it.

Yedu would, however, not budge till on March 15, 2010, when Madam Atomo went and found the girl in Yedu's room. She, therefore, lodged a complaint with the Apam police who arrested Yedu.

Chief Inspector Agyemang said the case was referred to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Agona Swedru Divisional Police Command for investigations.

Yedu in his cautioned statement admitted the offence. But the police medical report issued to the girl to attend hospital later indicated that she was 10 weeks pregnant.