The four men standing trial at a Ho High Court for their alleged complicity in the gang rape of a 16-year old girl at Ehi, more than four years ago, last Friday attempted to assault this reporter as they sought to know why he was so interested in the case.
This was just outside the court after their case was adjourned to July 16.
They were waiting for this reporter on the stair case and as soon as this reporter stepped out of the courtroom they walked towards him, seeking to know if he had taken a photograph of them with his cellular phone.
At this juncture, one of them, Joshua Kpeli walked towards this reporter, ostensibly to assault him, but their lawyer suddenly turned up at the scene to stop Kpeli, and also apologised on behalf of the accused persons for their unruly conduct.
The case before the court is that six gangsters at Ehi allegedly dragged a teenage girl into a classroom where all but one took turns to savagely rape her for hours and also filmed the sex acts.
Four members of the gang are now facing trial at the court.
They are Joshua Kpeli alias Stigma; Francis Sabla, alias China; Innocent Alevi, alias Clerk and Miwoekpor Agbenyegah alias Agbey.
The men were 21, 19, 19, and 20 years respectively, at the time of the rape.
Two others, Julius Donkor and Paul Agumezor were said to be at large.
The court, presided over by Mr Justice Eric Baah, was told that Kpeli who is charged with aiding and abetment of crime kept watch while the sex acts were going on, in readiness to alert his associates if someone was passing by.
He pleaded not guilty, while the others who are charged with conspiracy to commit rape and rape also pleaded not guilty.
Subsequently, a seven-member jury was empanelled to hear the case.
Senior State Attorney, Mr Moses Asampoa has told the court that the victim who was then 16 and the accused persons all lived at Ehi.
The court heard that on January 22, 2016 while the victim was helping her mother to cook in the evening, she received a call on her cellular phone from Agbey, asking her to buy him a canned-malt drink and send it to his house for him.
The unsuspecting girl obliged and sent the drink to Agbey’s house only for Agbey and the other members of the gang to follow her to Agbey’s house and then managed to lead her to a classroom at the local Kaledzi ‘C’ School that night, the jury was told.
In the classroom, the prosecution said that the men pushed the girl onto a desk and Agumezor (at large) held her hands while Alevi held her legs.
Sabla was the first to have sex with the girl after which he held the girl’s hand for the others to take turns to have sex with her, said the prosecution.
The jury further heard that the girl cried and pleaded with the gangsters to have mercy on her but they ignored and continued to have sex with her in turns until well over midnight, when they had all satisfied themselves, except Kpeli who was still keeping watch for them.
After the act, the prosecution said, the accused persons warned the girl not to disclose what they did to her to anyone.
At about 2:50 am, the following morning, a police officer spotted the victim and Sabla and sought to know where they were coming from in the dark.
The officer then noticed that the girl was groaning in pain and then told Sabla to go home, after which he took the girl to the nearby Dzodze Police Station, where the victim narrated the ordeal to the police, leading to the arrest of the accused person.
During investigations, the police seized the cellular phones of the men and realised that the sex acts were recorded on one of the phones.
The prosecution said that Sabla, Alevi, Agbenyega, Donkor and Agumezor admitted having sex with the girl in their police caution statements and pleaded for forgiveness.
The court was told that Donkor and Agumezor were being pursued by the police.
At the time of filing this report, news reaching the Ghanaian Times indicated that one of the fugitives, Donkor has been re-arrested and placed in police custody in Dzodze.
FROM ALBERTO MARIO NORETTI, HO
