Peter Mensah, a trader, who was accused of defiling a nine-year old pupil in an uncompleted toilet facility twice at Shipontele, near Amasaman in the Greater Accra Region has been discharged by an Accra Circuit Court.
The Court however explained to Mensah that his discharge did not mean he was innocent.
“It has not been established that you are innocent or guilty. If you want to have sex look for your age mates. Children are out of bounds,” Mrs. Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku warned the accused person.
Mensah did not understand what the trial judge said until it was interpreted to him in Twi. Mensah then bowed to the Court and thanked the trial judge.
Taking his seat at the courtroom, Mensah made a sign of the cross and yelled out in Twi “Awurade Medawase,” meaning “I thank God.”
Mensah’s discharge came after prosecuting Detective Inspector Kofi Atimbire had told the Court that the complainant had called him saying she was outside Accra and was no more interested in the matter.
The Court therefore discharged Mensah for want of prosecution amidst the warning.
Charged with defilement Mensah has pleaded not guilty before the Court on September 26, last year.
Inspector Atimbire who read the fact earlier on said the complainant is the father of the victim who resides at Akyem Segyimase in the Eastern Region.
The victim resides at Shipontele, near Amasaman with her mother. The accused person lived at Toman also in Amasaman.
Prosecution said during the month of July, while the victim was playing with her friends in the night in front of their house the accused called her under the pretext of sending her on an errand but lured her into an uncompleted toilet facility, near the victim’s house and asked the victim to stoop and he had sex with her.
Prosecution said after the act the accused person warned the victim not to inform anyone else she would die.
A week after the accused invited the victim to the same place and had sex with her.
On July 28, this year, the victim visited her father at Akyem Segyimase where she was taken ill and was rushed to the Kibi Government Hospital and she disclosed her ordeal to the complainant.
Detective Inspector Atimbire said the complainant reported the incident to the Police at Asiakwa where he was given a police extract and Police medical endorsed form to the Police at Amasaman and accused was picked up.