Woman roasts step-son's hands

Ashiaman (Greater Accra) -- Dede Nartey, a 32-year-old unemployed at Ashiaman Christian village, was last Tuesday, granted 5 million cedis bail with a surety for allegedly roasting her seven-year-old Stephen’s hand for stealing groundnuts.

Confusion arose in court over who the boy’s biological mother was. While the prosecution team maintained that the boy is a step-son to Dede, the accused insisted that she is the real mother.

The boy’s father is said to be outside the country. Dede’s plea was not taken. The tribunal chairman, Mr Ringo Cass Azumah, noted that it was important that the boy’s maternal parentage was established.

“I only wish that you are the boy’s biological mother but if it turns out the other way, then this becomes a dirty case,” he stated. Mr Azumah stressed that Dede had no right to mete out the kind of punishment she gave to a seven year-old boy for stealing groundnuts.

Chief Inspector Nutakor, prosecuting, told the court that at 2 pm on March 13, Dede had a report that the boy had stolen some groundnuts. She questioned the boy who denied the charge. Not satisfied with his explanation, Dede held the boy’s left palm over a coal pot with burning fire, causing burns on his hand.

A neighbour reported the incident to the Ashiaman Police the following day, when the boy was sent to the Tema General Hospital for treatment. Counsel for the accused claimed that the boy’s hand was not held over fire but that he accidentally fell and hurt his hand in the fire when his mother was spanking him for stealing.

He pleaded with the court that even if his client carried out the act it would have been a fallout from the culmination of a series of events. “It will take only the devil to deliberately want to hurt her son this way. “If justice takes its normal cause in this case, it would affect the growth, psychological development and strain the mother and child relationship needed for his son’s development,” he pleaded. Counsel suggested that the case be dealt within another social form. The case has been adjourned to April 3.