Sexual assault victims must report immediately to the hospital — Dr Aleosah

Dr Vannesa Nsiah Aleosah, a dental surgeon at Tema General Hospital has urged the public, particularly adolescent girls, to visit the hospital immediately after being sexually abused to get evidence of the act.

“When it happens, you go straight to a hospital. They will gather evidence for you by looking at the state of your reproductive organ, to know if it’s traumatized, and also, try and gather the sperm, and that is evidence,” she said.

Dr Aleosah who was speaking at a mentorship and leadership seminar organized by Women, Media Change (WOMEC) added that, after gathering the evidence, the report would be taken to the police station to allow the law to take its course against the perpetrator and ensure that, justice was brought to the victim to serve as a deterrent to others.

Dr Aleosah, who is also a child activist, warned sexual assault victims to desist from taking a bath right after defilement or rape as it could get rid of the physical evidence that could be used to process charges against the perpetrators.

“If you bath immediately after the act, you wash away the evidence, it makes it difficult to link the perpetrators to the crime in order to face the law,” she said.

She called on parents not to shield perpetrators of rape and defilement at the expense of the victim.

Dr Charity Binka, WOMEC Executive Director advised adolescent girls to find amicable ways of preventing rape or defilement and called on parents to desist from solving rape issues at home.

She said rape or defilement is a criminal offence that needed to be dealt with and in accordance with the laws of the country and charged the girls to report such cases to the police, parents, teachers among others