An unemployed teenager has been sentenced 18 years imprisonment in hard labour for defiling a four-year-old kindergarten girl at Debiasem in the Suaman District.

Kwaku Mensah, 18, was said to have sexually abused the victim in a cocoa farm when she was sent by her mother to deliver a bowl of maize to him.

Mensah pleaded guilty to the offence of defilement when he appeared before the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai Circuit Court presided over by Owoahene Yaw Acheampong.

Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector Benjamin Owusu Agyemang, told the court that, the victim and her parents reside in the same niegborhood at Debiasem with Mensah.

He said on Sunday, July 5, this year, while the victim's mother was passing by Mensah's cottage he requested for some maize and pleaded with her to give it to the victim so she could bring it to him.

Chief Inspector Agyemang said when the victim's mother got home around 10:00 am she sent her to the convict, who took advantage by dragging her into a nearby cocoa farm, tied her hands and mouth, and defiled her.

He said after the act Mensah abandoned the victim in the cocoa farm and fled from the cottage.

The prosecution said around 1500 hours the victim's mother became worried since there was no sign of her daughter returning home and started searching for her.

He said the mother later found the victim in a cocoa farm near the convict's cottage with blood around her womanhood and there narrated her ordeal to the mother.

The Prosecution said the victim's father was informed and he reported the matter to the Dadieso Police, where a medical report form was issued for him to send her to the Juaboso government hospital for examination.

Chief Inspector Agyemang said Mensah was subsequently arrested.