Ezekiel Churchill, a footballer, has been put before an Accra Circuit Court after he was alleged to have sodomised a minor under the pretext of sending him to register with a football club to enable him to build his football career. The accused person, who was charged with defilement of a child under 16 years, pleaded not guilty to the offence and has been remanded into police custody to re-appear on February 2, 2010, on the orders of the trial judge, Georgina Mensah-Datsa. Inspector A.A. Ahor, the prosecuting officer who presented the facts of the case, told the court that the victim, who is a 14-year-old pupil, lives with his mother at Nungua while the accused person is a footballer and a Nigerian national who lives in the same area. He said in early January 2011, the victim was playing football when Churchill saw him and said he liked his football skills, promising to help him join a club called Cowbell. The footballer later told the boy he would register him with the club so the boy informed his mother, who is also the complainant of the case, about Churchill's good intentions. On January 16, 2011. the accused person invited the victim to his hoiise under the pretext of going with him lo meet the manager of the club. While there, the accused person (old the victim to spend the night as it was late. Mr. Ahor stated that in the night, when the victim was sleeping, Churchill went and lay close to the boy, removed his underwear and inserted his penis into the anus of the boy. The boy however resisted but the accused person, who is older and stronger, forcibly defiled him, after which he warned him not to tell anybody. The minor thus kept the ordeal to himself. Later in the month, an informant who knew about the sexual orientation of the footballer became alarmed when he saw the victim in the company of the accused person and informed the complainant about seeing her son with the footballer. The police-officer said the complainant then questioned the victim about what had happened the night he slept at Churchill's house and the victim narrated his ordeal. A complaint was immediately lodged with the Nungua Police and a medical report form was issued to the victim to go to the hospital, where medical report was submitted to the victim after examination to be given to the police. The accused person was arraigned after police investigations. Source: Daily Guide