A court in Ghana has given a sentence of death by hanging to a driver who murdered and buried a British Christian missionary in an old farm in 2010, Ghana Web reported.
The sentence from the high court in Accra came after a jury unanimously returned a guilty verdict on Kofi Seidu for murdering Rev Sidney Barnes at Nsawam in the south of the country. Seidu has 30 days to appeal against his conviction.
An in-law of the victim, Rev Goodwill Padmore, was cleared of conspiracy to murder.
Barnes, who was 75 when he was killed, was a missionary attached to the Calvary Chapel in the US.
In 1997, he came to Ghana as a missionary and established the Crossroads Christian Mission Incorporated in Koforidua, in the eastern region of the country. He also established a computer school in Koforidua and owned farms at Akwamu Amanfo, near Nsawam.
According to the prosecution, Barnes employed Seidu as a driver and farm manager, and Padmore as the principal of the computer school.
Having returned to the US for a period, Barnes flew back to Ghana via London in 2010 and asked Padmore to inform Seidu to pick him up at the airport on the evening of March 18.
However, Seidu later called to inform Padmore that the Barnes was not among the passengers on board the British Airways flight.
Records show that Barnes did indeed fly from London to Ghana on March 18, 2010.
Seidu was picked up by the police on September 26, 2010, when he denied picking up Barnes from the airport.
But on October 4, 2010, Seidu reportedly confessed that Barnes had been killed, adding that he had been persuaded by Padmore to kill Barnes in order to steal the money he had brought from the US.
Seidu, the prosecution said, said that he found $3,000 on the deceased which he gave to Padmore, who gave Seidu back half of the amount.
An autopsy indicated that Barnes died of multiple stab wounds.
The prosecution called five witnesses to make their case during the trial, which began on January 15, 2015.
