The Tarkwa Circuit Court has sentenced a 40-year-old mason to 20 years’ imprisonment in hard labour for defiling his 13-year-old daughter in the Western Region.  

Samuel Okyere pleaded guilty to defilement and incest, alleging he was drunk, but the court rejected his excuse and punished him for his despicable act to deter others from committing a similar offence.  

The prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Samuel Ahiaboc, told the court presided over by Her Honour Bernice Mensima Ackon that the complainant is a trader and the victim's mother.  

He said Okyere and the complainant had been married for 14 years, had four children, with the victim being the eldest.  

The prosecution said that at about 11:00 pm on January 19, 2026, the complainant woke up to urinate and caught Okyere having sexual intercourse with the victim in their matrimonial room, where she was sleeping among her other three siblings.  

 ASP Ahiabor said the complainant shouted at Okyere and hit his back with both hands, forcing him to get up from the victim. 

He said the complainant who could not believe what she saw, reported the case to the Regional Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) in Tarkwa, and she was given a police medical form for the victim to be send to the hospital for examination and treatment.  

According to the prosecutor, the complainant subsequently returned the medical form endorsed by a medical officer at the Apinto Government Hospital in Tarkwa.  

ASP Ahiabor further informed the court that during investigation the victim revealed that Okyere started having sexual intercourse with her in 2025, whenever the complainant left home for work at dawn.  

The prosecutor said Okyere was therefore picked up for questioning, and an investigation caution statement was obtained from him.