Jesus Onetouch to answer incest charges

May 5, 2010 (Page 5)

THE Founder and General Overseer of the Jesus Blood Prophetic Ministry, Prophet Nana Kofi Yirenkyi, aka Jesus One Touch, yesterday suffered a setback when he was ordered to open his defence and answer incest charges levelled against him.
The accused person had filed a ‘submission of no case’ after the prosecution had closed its case in the matter in which he is standing trial for allegedly having sexual intercourse with his daughter.
But the court, presided over by Mrs Georgina Mensa-Datsa, held a different view.
He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of incest and defilement and has been refused bail.
His sympathisers, as usual, did not take kindly to the court’s ruling, which stated that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against him and for that reason he should open his defence on May 11, 2010.
Eight witnesses, including the victim (name withheld), her mother, two medical doctors, two investigators, among others, were called to testify in the trial which began in March 2010.
The facts of the case are that the 10-year-old victim confessed that the accused person, after bouts of sexual intercourse with her, wiped off the sperms from his sexual organ and the fluids from her private parts with a white handkerchief.
According to the prosecution, the victim, who was born out of wedlock, lived with her mother at Dawu in Akuapem until 2005 when she relocated to Accra to live with her father at McCarthy Hill to attend school.
It said in the latter part of 2007, the accused person began having sex with the victim before he organised church service each time.
In November 2009, the accused person gave the victim’s mother, who happened to be the complainant in the case, an opportunity to hold discussions with the victim about a bad behaviour she was exhibiting.
During the interaction with her mother, the victim revealed her ordeal to her mother, which resulted in the woman lodging a complaint with the police.