Harriet Amuzu, 32, who appeared in the viral video being beaten by her husband, John Odartey Lamtey, has spoken out for the first time since the video spread online.
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Narrating her horrific experiences, Ms. Amuzu revealed that she left her husband over five months ago, after he assaulted her by inserting pepper in her vagina and then had violent sex with her.
She recounted that on the day of the pepper incident, her husband sent her to buy food. She returned home late due to a long line, which angered her husband. He accused her of infidelity, claiming she used the long wait as a cover.
“He refused to eat the food, went to the bedroom in front of our son, got pepper from the kitchen, put it in my vagina, and forced sex on me.”
She stated that she was assaulted on more than five occasions, each time reporting to the Ofankor Police station, who referred her to the Tesano Police DOVSU, but no effective action was taken.
‘I went to the police station over six times, but nobody listened to me,’ Ms. Amuzu told Naana Dokua in an interview.
Recounting the recent assault that went viral, she said:
She described that after the pepper incident, she stayed with her family for five months. However, last week, on Monday, her husband, with whom she has two children, called and claimed their son was seriously ill. When she arrived, she found her son was not sick. That evening, her husband demanded sex, which she refused. The next morning, he sent the children to school, locked her in the bedroom, and threatened her with a cutlass, stating his intent to kill her. He assaulted her as she cried for help. One of his brothers, Odartey, who encouraged the assault, managed to remove the cutlass from him. At that point, her husband tried to get another cutlass, prompting her to escape to the compound.
She said that after the beatings, she had no choice but to flee. She left the house, boarded a Kumasi-bound vehicle, and did not return to the police as she had lost faith in their intervention.
Odartey Lamtey was arrested on November 18, 2025, along with his two siblings, Grace Kushie Lamptey and Louis Odartey Lamptey, at their family residence in Ofankor, Accra.
In the said video, the woman was being beaten by the now suspect on their compound while naked. A female tenant recorded a video that went viral. The Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection (MOGCSP) described it as a “barbaric act” and contacted the Police for investigation.
The police said, “After his arrest, his siblings, Grace Kushie Lamptey and Louis Odartey Lamptey, tried to attack the female tenant they thought filmed and shared the video, so they were also arrested. The tenant was rescued for her safety.”
