Court remands music teacher

Page 31: Daily Graphic, April 1, 2010.
Story: Albert K. Salia
AN Accra circuit court has remanded Gideon Nana Ofei Dodoo, a music teacher of the Great Lamptey Mills Institute, into police custody for further investigations into his alleged defilement of a nine-year-old pupil of the institute.
His plea was not taken and the court, presided over by Mrs Georgina Mensah Datsa, remanded him into custody until April 6, 2010.
The suspect had gone into hiding since March 19, 2010 when the police started looking for him, after a complaint had been lodged that he had allegedly defiled a pupil of the institute in November 2009.
He was, however, arrested on March 25, 2010 and the case was accordingly referred to the Accra Regional office of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service.
The Head of DOVVSU, DSP Owusua Kyeremeh, said the suspect was scheduled to re-appear on April 6, 2010, by which time the police would have conducted more investigations into the matter.
Police sources said a medical report had confirmed that the victim’s private part had been dangerously tampered with.
Dodoo was alleged to have defiled the victim in November 2009 but warned her not to inform anyone about it.
The victim claimed that Dodoo told her she would die if she informed anyone about it, as a result of which she said she had to endure the abuse in a toilet where Dodoo always had carnal knowledge of her.
The girl claimed Dodoo would usually ask her to wait for everyone to leave or when the school was very quiet before taking her into the toilet to defile her.
The victim’s mother, however, detected changes in the girl and, upon interrogation, she informed her mother that it was the music teacher who had been sexually abusing her.
The victim’s mother reported the matter to the police on March 19, 2010 and also indicated in her complaint that when she went to the school, the authorities allegedly wanted to “settle” her to keep the matter silent.