A 55-year old ex-soldier, Donkor Franco Hayford, was on Monday sentenced to 20 years in imprisonment in hard labour by a Circuit Court in Takoradi for defiling a seven-year- old girl. The victim is a class one pupil at Assokor Essaman near Shama in the Western Region. Passing judgment, the presiding judge, Mr Justice Kwasi Boakye said the convict had been in a noble profession of protecting lives and safeguarding the territorial integrity of the country and should have known better. Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector Alice Parker-Wilson said both the accused and the victim resided at Assorko Essaman. She said on February 8, this year, the convict met the victim on her way to school and sent her to buy salt for him. Chief Inspector Parker-Wilson said when the victim returned from the errand, Hayford grabbed her and dragged her to a nearby bush and forcefully had sexual intercourse with her and warned her not to tell anyone or else he would kill her. She said the victim could not go to school that day because of the injury she sustained at her private part as a result of the sexual intercourse. The prosecutor said when the mother of the victim Madam Ama Awortwe, a farmer, returned from the farm in the evening she found her daughter in a very sad mood and interrogated her. Chief Inspector Parker-Wilson said the girl narrated her ordeal compelling her mother to report the matter to the police and leading to the arrest of Hayford. Source: GNA