A 24 year old driver in Ho, Courage Dogbey who engaged the services of his unemployed friend to abort the pregnancy of his (the driver) girlfriend has been sentenced to two years imprisonment on Wednesday by the Ho Circuit Court, after pleading guilty to aiding and abetment of criminal abortion.
Dogbey’s accomplice, 47 year old Dieu-Donne Mondale, who was also jailed similarly for criminal abortion, accordingly to a Ghanaian Times newspaper report on Thursday, injected the pregnant girl and administer a cocktail of other drugs to terminate her 8 months old pregnancy.
Mondale, who was the second accused pleaded not guilty with explanation, but the court said his explanation was consistent with his plea.
Sergeant Clever Ayayee of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) told the court presided over by Madam Priscilla Dikro that, the 17 year old girl was eight months pregnant at the time.
The court heard that on May 6, this year, the girl told her mother that she was pregnant and mentioned Dogbey as the person responsible for the pregnancy.
Her mother in turn informed Dogbey about the pregnancy, who then contacted the second accused for help to get rid of the pregnancy.
The court heard that, Mondale demanded Ghc400 from Dogbey to buy the necessary medications to terminate the pregnancy, after which Dogbey made an initial deposit of Ghc50 to him.
The prosecution revealed that, on May 9, Dogbey took the girl to the house of Mondale who injected her and also gave the other drugs to her, before collecting an additional Ghc300 from the first accused.
The prosecution said that, as a result of the injection and the drugs the girl took, the foetus dropped into a latrine pit while she was attending to nature’s call the next morning, which caused her to bleed profusely.
She was rushed to the Volta Regional Hospital in Ho, where doctors and nurses worked round the clock to save her life, said the prosecution.
After she narrated what her boyfriend and his friend did to her, a report was made to DOVVSU, whereupon the two men were arrested.
The prosecution said that Dogbey and Mondale admitted to the offence in their caution statements to the police.
Credit: Ghanaian Times