Yaw Poku, 20, a driver's mate, has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by a Kumasi Circuit Court for defiling an eight-year-old school pupil.
He pleaded guilty.
Police Chief Inspector James Amekah told the Court presided over by Mr Justice Richard Mac Kogyapwah that the victim is a cousin to the convict and
that they all live together at Kronom, a suburb of Kumasi.
On December 1, the father of the young girl travelled outside Kumasi whilst the mother attended an all-night church service, leaving the two alone in the house.
Police Chief Inspector Amekah said Poku took advantage of the absence of the couple and subjected the minor to bouts of sexual assault.
Poku warned the victim not to tell anyone about her ordeal, threatening she would die should she disobey the warning.
Police Chief Inspector Amekah said the girl, who was bleeding, ignored this and informed the mother on her return.
The woman arrested the convict and handed him over to the police after which a medical form was given to the victim for treatment at the
hospital.
Mr Justice Kogyapwah, passing the sentence, remarked that Poku's conduct had given him out as a beast.
His animalistic instinct which he was unable to control, the Judge said, led him into such an unimaginable act and therefore deserved to be put away and excluded from society.
This way, Poku would not infect his peers with such criminal behaviour.