THE Tema Circuit Court yesterday sentenced a 65-year-old American to 25 years’ imprisonment with hard labour for defiling eight children at Adjomanikope, near Sege in the Dangme East District.
The accused, Patrick Ken Larbash, is also to be deported back to the US after he has finished serving his sentence.
He pleaded not guilty to one count of unnatural carnal knowledge and seven counts of defilement under the Domestic Violence Law, Act 723.
Chief Inspector Matilda Tetteh had told the court, presided over by Justice Lorinda Owusu, that on August 28, 2009, the Greater Accra Regional office of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs had gone to Adjomanikope to organise a sensitisation workshop on the Domestic Violence Law, with special emphasis on human rights abuse.
She said the defiled children approached officials of the ministry after the programme and informed them of the activities of the convict, who frequently lured the victims, aged between three and 12, to his residence under the pretext of providing them with food and candies.
When he got them in his house, the convict engaged them in sexual encounters by stripping naked for the children to suck his genitals, while he mounted a digital camera to record the scenes.
A report was immediately lodged at the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit, which investigated the matter, leading to the arrest of the suspect who denied the allegations when interrogated.
However, a search conducted in his room revealed a Nokia 6080 phone, a digital camera, a laptop, pen drives and other recording gadgets containing pornographic materials showing him stark naked with children sucking his genitals.
These were tendered in court.
Larbash, whose counsel, Alhaji Tetteh, was conspicuously missing in court, was well composed throughout proceedings and maintained that he was innocent of the charges levelled against him.
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