Ghanaian footballer, Paintsil, stabbed wife, assaulted neighbour

Ghanaian defender, John Paintsil, not only stabbed his wife, but assaulted a neighbour, the police have said.
Paintsil, a former Fulham, West Ham and Leicester City defender, was arrested by the police in Ghana for stabbing his wife on Friday.
The shocking development comes when the sporting world is yet to come to terms with the murder allegations against another sports celebrity, the Blade Runner, Oscar Pistorius, who only on Friday secured a controversial bail plea after it was confirmed he shot his girlfriend (albeit unknowingly) to death.
An Accra police spokesman, Freeman Tettey, in an interview with BBC Sport confirmed the assault and arrest of the Ghanaian defender.
“The information available to us is that he stabbed his wife in the upper eyelid, so we had to quickly rescue the wife and send her to hospital. For now, he is in our custody and we are in the investigation process.
“We are holding him for causing bodily harm to his wife and for assaulting his neighbour,” Tettey told BBC Sport.
According to the police spokesman, the wife had scaled a fence to a neighbour’s house in search of protection, but the former Fulham man followed suit and in the process assaulted the neighbour too.
“The wife scaled a wall to a neighbour’s house for protection and immediately Paintsil also pursued her, came to the neighbour’s house, gave him (neighbour) some slaps and threatened to shoot him.
“That scared the gentleman who rushed to the police to lodge a complaint,” Tettey added.
Tettey, who made no clear statement on the health of Paintsil’s wife, Richlove, said police can keep the long-standing international for no longer than 48 hours before deciding whether to charge him.
“She collapsed, which suggests she is in a critical condition but for now we don’t know her current state. When she is stable, we can start taking statements from her.
“By Sunday night, we should have conducted our preliminary enquiry ahead of possibly giving a court something to look at on Monday,” the spokesman explained.
The spokesperson said the woman is receiving hospital treatment for serious eye wounds after collapsing following the assault.
Paintsil was part of the Ghana 2006 and 2010 soccer World Cup squads; and also part of the team that finished fourth this month behind Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Mali at the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.