An Accra Circuit Court has sentenced Sokah Phidels Load, a 47-year-old teacher and ex-convict, to 48 years’ imprisonment with hard labour after he was found guilty of defiling a seven-year-old girl.

The presiding judge, Mr. G.A. Inkumsah-Ishum, found Sokah guilty after a full trial. Sokah had pleaded not guilty.

According to the prosecution led by Police Chief Inspector Edna Aningah, the convict has a history of similar criminal behaviour.

The prosecutor noted that in 2011, Sokah was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment for defilement, which was later reduced to 15 years on appeal, a sentence he completed in 2020.

Despite his past conviction, he secured employment in a basic school without the school being aware of his criminal background.

Case background

According to the prosecutor, the complainant is the father of the victim and lives with his daughter in Accra.

She added that Sokah, who lived on the school’s premises, had been employed at the victim’s school for just three weeks.

“On February 6, 2025, at around 7.15 a.m., the victim’s father dropped her off at school. Sokah, who was then in his office located at the Administrator’s Block, observed the girl entering the common hall to place her drink in the school’s fridge.

He called her to his office under false pretences,” she explained.

The prosecutor stated that when the victim entered Sokah’s office, he asked her to show him her panty, which she did, afterwards he took the victim to the teachers’ washroom and instructed her to sit on the water closet and angrily asked her to remove her panty and cover her face, which she did with her uniform but peeped to watch him.

She added that the convict then opened his flap, knelt and inserted his finger and penis into the victim’s private part, leading to her screaming for help.

Sokah, however, covered her mouth and warned her not to tell anyone else, he would cane her, but the victim later confided in another pupil who was the sister of her classmate. That pupil then reported the incident to school authorities.

She said that the school promptly called the victim to the director’s office at the close of school, where she recounted her experience in the presence of her father.

The prosecutor said that upon realising the matter had been reported, Sokah fled the school premises and went into hiding.

“A complaint was then lodged with the police, and the victim was issued a medical form and taken for examination at a hospital.”

Chief Inspector Aningah told the court that efforts to reach Sokah proved unsuccessful until later, when he sent a voice note to the school, acknowledging that he had heard the police were searching for him, but he still refused to surrender.

The prosecutor added that the police eventually traced his hideout at Santeo, a community in Accra.

She stated that surveillance with his identification card was then mounted in the neighbourhood, leading to his arrest on March 13, 2025.

“After a thorough investigation, Sokah was charged with the offence and brought before the court,” the prosecutor stated.