Court
The police have revealed that the 17-year-old female student of Benkum Senior High School in Larteh Akuapim in the Eastern Region was rather raped in two separate incidents by a gang of five and four boys.
Five of the boys who have been arrested and arraigned on charges of conspiracy and rape have since been remanded in police custody by an Akropong Circuit Court to re-appear on Thursday, March 1, 2012, while some of the suspects have been identified.
Their names were given as Joel Benyarko, aka STI, 18, Paul Saah, aka Skimpo, 19, both final year students and Henry Nii Addy, 21, a form-3 student.
Robert Freeman Tettey, the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) Public Relations Officer at the Police Headquarters, Accra, said the police were withholding the names of the other two remand suspects since they are minors.
He narrated that on Saturday, February 18, 2012, a friend of the victim’s had asked her to accompany her to one of the classrooms after prep hours to collect a book from another student who was then waiting in the classroom.
While the friend was busy with the person she had gone to, the victim, who was left alone in another classroom, was lured by one of the suspects to an obscure room where four others had laid ambush for her.
All the five suspects allegedly had sexual intercourse with the young girl in turns.
Having satisfied their libido, they pushed her out in agony.
The 17-year-old victim, while groaning to her dormitory, met another gang of four boys who allegedly subjected her to further bouts of unsolicited sex.
Luck however eluded the four when one of their seniors emerged from nowhere and chanced upon them in the act.
It was that senior who rescued the girl, took her to her room and reported the matter to the school’s authority.
The authorities of the school, in turn, reported the matter to the police who began investigations leading to the arrest of the five.
One of the suspects, according to DSP Tettey, broke bounds and went home.
He told his parents that they were on mid-term holidays but left the house unceremoniously and had since not returned. The police officer added that parents of suspects had been very cooperative with the police.
“I want to plead with the public that they should be circumspect in commenting on the story, especially comments that may offend the victim,” he pleaded.
The police said since they were not sure of the ages of the absconded suspects, they could not make their names public.
BY Rocklyn Antonio
