An 87-year-old man has been sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment with hard labour for the sexual abuse of a nine-year-old girl in Ofankor, a suburb of Accra, Ghanaian police said.
Yaw Gahornu was convicted by the Gender-Based Violence Court at the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) headquarters after pleading guilty to two counts of defilement.
In a statement on Monday, Ghana Police Service spokesperson Juliana Obeng said the conviction followed repeated abuse of the victim between July and August 2026.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that on 29th August 2026, the complainant returned from work and noticed bloodstains on the clothing of her nine-year-old daughter,” she said.
The victim later disclosed that Gahornu had subjected her to repeated sexual abuse, police said. Further inquiries established that he had threatened to kill the child if she told her mother.
“On 31st August 2026, the alleged abuse was reportedly witnessed by the accused’s granddaughter, who subsequently informed family members, including the complainant, and the matter was reported to the police,” Obeng noted.
Gahornu, who lived in a wooden structure about 40 metres from the girl’s home, was charged and arraigned before the court, where he was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment with hard labour.
The court imposed 10 years on each of the two counts of defilement, to run consecutively. He was discharged on a separate charge of unnatural carnal knowledge.
Prosecutors said the girl’s mother, a 42-year-old trader, lived in the same neighbourhood. Gahornu, an unemployed first-time offender who had already spent a month in custody, admitted the offences without prolonging the proceedings.
The court said the seriousness of the offence required a sentence that would deter others.
