A 35-year-old labourer who sexually molested a five-year-old girl at Weija, in Accra, has been sentenced to one-year imprisonment by the Gender Based Violence Court.

Charged with indecent assault, Moro Yusif pleaded guilty with an explanation.

Yusif told the court that he was playing with the victim to aid his erection and placed her on his lap.

According to him, he got wet in the process just then the victim's mother called her.

The accused said the victim's mother followed up to his room and found that his boxer shorts was wet and concluded that he had defiled her.   

"On my laps, I was using her buttock to rub my boxer shorts, although the victim was wearing her pants and a straight dress," the accused told the court.

The prosecution urged the court to give the accused person a deterrent sentence because as an adult he had the responsibility to protect the victim instead of sexually molesting her.

Chief Inspector Opoku Aniagyei who held the brief of Chief Inspector Gladys Aikins- Asare told the court that the complainant was a trader and mother of the victim. 

The prosecution said the parties in the matter resided in the same house at Old Weija, Accra.

On January 8, this year at about 6:00 pm, the complainant and her husband, a witness in the case, were seated in front of their room relaxing and could see their daughter where they were.

The prosecution said a witness saw the hand of the victim trying to open the door of the accused person.

The prosecutor said the complainant followed up and asked the accused person what her daughter was doing in his room.

The accused person did not answer. 

The complainant took the victim away, but one David Gyasi and his friend went to confront the accused and they found that his boxer shorts was wet.

The prosecution said the accused person told them that the victim came to play in his room and in the process, he ejaculated in his boxer shorts and that he had used his penis to brush the victim's vagina.

On January 9, 2024, the complainant together with two other witnesses reported the accused person to the Weija Divisional DOVVSU and she was given a Police medical form to seek medical care for the victim.

The prosecution said on January 15, 2024, the complainant returned the medical form duly endorsed by a medical officer.