Increase in sexual assault is worrying

Article: Salome Donkor
The shocking account of the ordeal of a 10-year-old class five pupil who was allegedly defiled by a man at Achimota who escaped after the act, was horrifying. The girl bled profusely and defecated on the floor as a result of the sexual assault on her.
The victim (name withheld), narrated her ordeal, during the Metro TV evening news on Monday January 25, speaking fluent English and vividly explaining what happened to her on the day in question.
She said she was sent to buy something and on her way back home, she met the suspect who said he was looking for somebody.
The innocent girl told him that she did not know the person in question but advised the man to get in touch with her parents who may be of help to him.
The stranger walked together with the girl for a while and on their way, he branched to a nearby house where nobody was around and called the girl to come and look at something.
When the girl got there, he drew a knife and told her that he was going to rape her and warned her that he would kill her if she resisted. He, therefore, covered the innocent girl’s mouth, tied her hands and pinned her down and defiled her.
A content analysis of some newspapers show an increasing spate of reported cases of defilement in parts of the country. No day goes by in this country without any defilement or rape case either being reported in the media, at the law courts or police service.
Statistics from the Greater Accra office of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service indicate that sexual offence cases recorded by the unit in the region, increased from 4,904 in 2008 to 5,709 last year.
The breakdown is 552 cases of defilement, 161 cases of rape, 59 cases of indecent assault and 15 cases of incest recorded in 2008. In 2009, the unit recorded 492 cases of defilement, 170 cases of rape, 64 cases of indecent assault and 14 cases of incest and most of these offences were committed by strangers, tenants, neighbours and close relations of the victims.
Some of the cases are so pathetic that one wonders whether the future of women to-be, will be worth what is being fought for now. Some of the suspects and perpetrators are above 60 years while some victims are minors less than one year old.
Can one imagine these stories, all published in the Friday January 22 issue of the Ghanaian Times. One story said “a 25-year-old shoemaker has been sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment by a Kumasi Circuit Court for raping a porter”, another said “a 20-year-old carpenter at the Sokoban Wood Village has been sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment by a Circuit Court in Kumasi for defiling an eight-year-old girl”.
Another story stated that “three persons, an adult and two juveniles, who allegedly gang-raped a 14-year-old girl, were on Tuesday put before a circuit court in Cape Coast on charges of defilement”, while another said “ the Juaso Circuit Court has remanded a 20-year-old photographer in prison custody for defiling a six-year-old girl”.
The Greater Accra Regional Public Relations Officer of DOVVSU, Chief Inspector Irene Oppong, defines defilement as the act of having sexual intercourse with a child below the age of 16.
Many are the children who are defiled each day but do not have the courage to disclose their plight. Majority of such victims are children who live in compound houses and newly created suburbs or vicinities, where only few people have put up buildings.
Other groups of victims are children who seem to have no parental or guardian control. Most men who abuse these minors sexually have often been successful in deceiving their victims with threats of death, should they disclose to anybody, while others give their victims confectioneries or meagre sums to prevent them from disclosing their ordeal to anybody.
These acts leave the victims with serious physical injuries, disabilities, emotional and mental problems and sometimes lead to death.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC) adopted 20 years ago and Ghana’s Children's Act, 1998 (Act 560) stresses that the dignity and rights of every child are to be respected in every circumstance. The Act has served as a working tool for Ghana and has been translated into six major local languages.
So many of the cases are tried in courts and the culprits convicted when they are found guilty but the increasing spate of reported cases of rape and defilement, is outrageous and there is still more to be done to deal with the situation.
A Ghana News Agency health news on May 5, 2009 said Dr Peter Baffoe, a gynaecologist at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital, has expressed concern at the spate of rape and defilement cases in the country and said if pragmatic measures were not taken to deal with the problem immediately it would become worse.
The doctor explained that there were several and serious health implications for victims of rape and defilement. He mentioned HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases that could be transmitted to the victims of rape and noted that some girls who were raped or defiled sometimes refused to take male partners for marriage due to the trauma they underwent as victims in their earlier life.
The doctor said rape and defilement in some instances could lead to infertility in women and called for the enforcement of the law to deal drastically with anybody who indulged in rape, to serve as a deterrent. He indicated that there were a lot of instances where rape and defilement cases were not given serious attention by the courts and said this often discouraged people from reporting their cases to the police.
Chief Inspector Oppong called for maximum co-operation, in terms of reporting, between the public and the police. She said most sexual offences need witnesses and it is difficult for justice to be done when there are no witnesses.
The PRO, who gave some security tips to parents, children and the general public, advised girls and women not to walk alone in the night or even during the day in secluded areas, not to follow people to secluded area or attend to strangers.
She also advised them not to accept gifts from men, desist from watching television in people’s rooms and avoid sitting on the beds of people they visit and also wear tight trousers when going out.
She said parents should also give their daughters security tips constantly and ensure that an elderly person always accompanies drivers who pick their children from school and also avoid leaving their daughters in the care of houseboys, male friends, neighbours and associates.
She said family members, family heads or clans of victims of sexual assault should consider the hazards the victims were likely to undergo in the future and desist from settling such cases out of court.
Much as the police and the courts are expected to see to speedily facilitate the processes in dealing with rape and defilement cases, parents also need to take proper care of their children, refrain from sending their children during odd times and report defilement and rape cases to the Unit.
The problem needs the support of all to battle it out though it is expected demands must be put on the police to deliver to expectation, it is also expected that parents and guardians, the media and the general public as a whole must play their role in the process.