A 64-year-old man named Isaac Odoom has been sentenced to jail for trespassing into the residence of John Paintsil, a well-known player of the Blacks Stars football team, with the intention of sleeping there.
According to Mr. Odoom, he had accompanied a colleague with whom he worked burning charcoal in Ajumako Abease, located in the Central Region.
They found themselves without a place to sleep when night fell.
The Ajumako Magistrate Court found Mr. Odoom guilty of theft and handed down a twelve-month prison sentence.
However, the elderly man, appearing frail, claimed that they had only entered the house to sleep as it was late, and denied stealing anything from the player’s residence.
He explained that after leaving the house, he learned from a friend that the police were searching for him for breaking into John Paintsil’s house.
His companion who entered the house with him had already been apprehended.
Supporting his assertion of innocence, Mr. Odoom mentioned that the house was unoccupied.
“The player had evicted everyone from the house. Nobody was living there, so it was empty. There was nothing to take from the house, and we were wrongfully accused of theft,” he stated.
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Mr. Odoom was fined One Thousand Four Hundred Ghana cedis, an amount he could not afford.
Consequently, he was sentenced to eight months in prison to offset the debt.
During one of its regular visits to prisons nationwide as part of its Petty Offenders project, the Crime Check Foundation (CCF) visited the Winneba Local Prison where Mr. Odoom was serving his sentence.
After hearing his story, the CCF paid his fine to secure his release. Additionally, a Ghanaian footballer based in Sweden, Emmanuel Boateng, contributed to facilitating the convict’s release.
Through its fine-paying initiative, the Crime Check Foundation has assisted in the release of numerous inmates from prisons.
