V/R: 4 dragged to court for gang rape of teenager

More than four years after six gangsters at Ehi, in the Volta Region, allegedly dragged a teenage girl into a classroom where all but one took turns to rape her for hours and also filmed the sex acts, four members of the gang were put before a Ho High Court on Wednesday.

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 are 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, whilst the sex acts were going on, in readiness to alert his associates if someone was passing by.

He pleaded not guilty, whilst 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 told the court that the victim who was then 16 and the accused persons all lived in Ehi.

The court heard that on January 22, 2016, whilst 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, whilst 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 persons.

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 four who are bail will appear before the court again on June 26.

Meanwhile, Donkor and Agumezor are being pursued by the police.