Ghanaian man jailed in US for child molestation

A political refugee from Ghana was sentenced to three years in prison Friday for molesting a 3-year-old girl in a house in Lake Forest.

Baaki Yakubu, 21, pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse on June 5. He faced a maximum seven years in prison.

Yakubu and his family, who were granted political asylum in 2004, were living in Lake Forest acting as caretakers for an elderly man.

Assistant State’s Attorney Brett Henne said the mother of the girl called police on Sept. 19 and said she had caught Yakubu molesting her daughter.

Yakubu originally denied doing anything to the girl, Henne said, but eventually admitted that he had done something wrong to the girl.

Assistant Public Defender LaTonya Burton asked Associate Judge George Bridges to place Yakubu on probation, citing his age and lack of criminal history.

Henne recommended a prison sentence and claimed that Yakubu was unlikely to succeed in a sex offender treatment program.

Yakubu apologized in his own statement to the court.

“I am here to take responsibility for the mistakes that I made,” he said. “I feel guilty, I feel ashamed.”

Bridges said Yakubu’s lack of a criminal record was not enough to keep him out of prison.

“No 3-year-old child should be subjected to what you put that child through,” he told Yakubu. “No words can justify the position you found yourself in.”

Source: Daily Herald