A 21-year-old lactating mother and a seamstress apprentice, who caused harm to her eight-year-old stepdaughter at Nyankoman in the Aowin municipality, has been sentenced to six months imprisonment by the Enchi District Magistrate Court.
The court, also, ordered Mary Ackaah, alias Assor, to pay a fine of GH¢1,200 or in default serve six months in prison. She was convicted on her own plea of guilty.
Detective Inspector Joseph Kwadwo Agyare, told the court, presided by Mr Eric Baah Boateng, that Hannah Mensah, the complainant, resides at Yiwabra, while Kwame Agyemang, a witness, is a parent of the victim (name withheld), a primary two pupil.
The court heard that the victim lived in the same room with her father, siblings and the convict at Nyankoman.
Insp Agyare said Mary invited the victim to run errand for her, while playing with her friends in the neighbourhood, but the victim did not respond to the call.
He said later in the day, Mary upon seeing the victim decided to lash her with a cane, but in the process, the cane hit the victim’s left eye.
Insp Agyare said Mary warned the victim not to tell the father or else she would subject her to severe beatings.
He said when the victim was questioned by the father about her injury, she lied that it was his younger brother, who hit her left eye with a stick, while they were playing, and the father took her to the Episcopal Health Centre at Nyankoman for treatment.
Prosecution said the complainant took the girl to the Presbyterian Health Centre in Enchi, where a referral note was issued to her to take the victim to the Agogo Hospital in the Ashanti Region, to seek further medical attention.
Insp Agyare said the complainant lodged a complaint at the Enchi Police station, where a medical report form was issued to her on behalf of the victim for a medical examination, and Mary was apprehended.
Prosecution said a medical report from the hospital indicated that the victim was blind on the left eye, adding that the convict confessed to the act in her caution statement. -GNA
