Lawyer claims pastor who defiled 4-year-old girl was drunk, pleads manslaughter for victims death

Man defiles 4-year-old to death

Court refuses to grant pastor bail

The lawyer of a 50-year-old pastor who defiled a four-year-old girl leading to her death, is pleading for the accused to be charged with manslaughter instead of murder.

The lawyer argued that, the accused, who is a pastor of 12 Apostles church, was intoxicated when he lured the deceased to his bathroom before allegedly defiling the deceased.

The pastor, Isaac Bowe Gyasi, who has been charged with murder has been remanded into custody by the Accra High Court.

The lawyer of the accused, during his application for bail via bail via a Justice For All Virtual Court session on Friday (July 22, 2022) said his lawyer, David Owusu Tachie, who had been behind bars since 2018, prayed to the court presided over by Justice Clemence Honyenuga, a Justice of Supreme Court sitting as an additional High Court judge, to grant the accused bail.

But the state, led by an Assistant State Attorney, Yvonne Dacosta, opposed the application on grounds that the pastor bolted after committing the alleged crime and if granted bail, Gyasi may not avail himself for trial.

The application for bail was subsequently refused by the court, based on the circumstances that led to the untimely death of the four-year-old victim, Graphic.com reports. The court ordered the prosecution to expedite the processes needed for the trial to commence within one month.

Justice for All

Gyasi’s case was one of 60 cases to be heard virtually through the Justice For All Programme (JFAP), an initiative meant to decongest Ghana’s prisons.

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The JFAP is organised by the Judicial Service and facilitated by the POS Foundation, a civil society organisation.