A 21-year-old woman was on Monday sentenced to seven years imprisonment by an Accra Circuit Court for child theft.
Mercy Sam, a chop bar attendant, pleaded guilty to child stealing and she was convicted accordingly.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Agnes Boafo told the Court presided over by Mrs Rita Abrokwa Doko that Nana Ama, 20, is unemployed and the complainant in the case.
She and her husband (Shaibu Fuseini) live at Korle-Gono, but paid frequent visits to her mother at Dansoman in Accra.
The couple have a two-week old baby girl.
DSP Boafo explained that Mercy lived opposite Nana Ama’s mother’s house at Sukura-Dansoman, where the complainant usually go to so as to have her mother bath the baby.
On September 10, at about 1200hours, the complainant visited her mother and Mercy offered her hot water to be used in bathing the baby and Nana Ama accepted.
The Prosecution said after bathing the baby, the complainant decided to breastfeed the baby, but convict advised her to go and take her bath first.
Since her mother had gone out, Nana Ama gave the baby to one Issah Saani to enable her go for her bath.
She said the complainant returned and asked for her baby but was told that Mercy came for her, Mercy on the other hand told her the girl’s biological father and his sister had come for the baby.
DSP Boafo said when she went to her matrimonial home to find out, the husband told her it was not true that he had come for the baby.
The complainant then called a police patrol team that came to her aid and they went with her to look for the baby.
During the search, it was discovered that Mercy sent the baby to one Joyce Kissiwaa with the excuse that she was going to buy something and would come back for the baby but never did.
Kisiwaa also made a formal complaint to the Nima Police Domestic Violence and Victim’s Support Unit (DoVVSU).
Complainant made a report to the Dansoman DoVVSU which led to Mercy’s arrest. In her cautioned statement, she confessed telling her boyfriend she was pregnant and due to deliver on September 7.
The Prosecution said she had been stacking pieces of cloth in her dress to make her stomach big.
Based on this information, she was charged and put before court.
