sodomist jailed for 15 years

February 25, 2003: The Ghanaian Chronicle reports that a 21-year old labourer, Kwamena Edwo, of Cape Coast, charged with having 'unnatural knowledge' of a 17-year old boy, was last Monday sentenced to 15 years imprisonment to serve as a deterrent to others like him by a Cape Coast circuit court, presided over by Mr. Justice Kwame Ohene-Essel.

The accused pleaded guilty to the offence of practising homosexuality, which is frowned upon in the Ghanaian society.

Prosecuting, Inspector Hope Azasa told the court of anxious people, who had filled the courtroom to capacity to catch a glimpse of a 20-year-old fisherman standing trial in a murder case, that the complainant in the case was a worker of the Public Works Department (PWD) and father of the victim, an apprentice mechanic of the same department, whose name is being withheld for security reasons.

The prosecutor said on February 10, this year, at the close of work, the master of the victim was alleged to have instructed him to pack all the tools into a room where they usually kept them. He added that after packing the tools in the room, the victim informed his master about it.

According to Inspector Asaza, the master later saw his boy and the accused resting and the boy's master instructed them to leave their resting place. But, the prosecutor told the court, a senior apprentice later told the master that his boy and the accused were hiding in a corner adjacent to the workshop doing 'something.'

Inspector Azasa stated that when the master went to the place to find out, he saw the two engaged in annal sex and therefore reported the victim to the father. The caser was reported to the police, who issued a medical form for the victim to be sent to the hospital. At the hospital, the prosecutor said, it was confirmed that the victim had had an annal sex and there were minor bruises in the anus.

When the victim was asked by the judge as to how many times he had engaged in annal sex with the accused, he shamefully told the court that he and the accused had engaged in that practice on five occasions.

The judge told the victim that he is equally guilty of the offence and warned if he is one day brought before him for practising the act on someone else, he would deal with him ruthlessly.