A 35-year-old woman who subjected her 12-year-old daughter to severe beatings and inflicted knife wounds on her after accusing her of stealing GH¢119 has been sentenced to six years imprisonment by the Accra Circuit Court.
Rebecca Ojo Udonsi, a Nigerian, pleaded guilty to causing harm and was slapped with the jail term by the court, presided over by Mrs Rita Abrokwah Doku, on her own plea.
The incident is said to have taken place at Osu in Accra on April 5, 2019.
Apart from the sentence, the court further ordered the deportation of the convict after serving her jail term.
Prosecutors told the court that Udonsi first used a pair of scissors to inflict wounds on the daughter to force her to confess to stealing the money. When that did not work, she used a knife to inflict multiple wounds on her, locked her up in a room and left her to her fate.
The 12-year-old appeared in the courtroom with bandages and wounds all over her body.
I have the right to discipline my daughter
Udonsi after pleading guilty, told the court that the daughter had become a social menace, who indulges in defiant behaviour such as stealing and was also engaged in sexual relationship with a certain boy.
According to her, the daughter normally stole money from her and that of her neighbours, a situation which had led to a deterioration in her relationship with her neighbours.
Udonsi cried throughout the court proceedings and told the court that she did what she did because she had the right to discipline her daughter to prevent her from getting out of hand. She, however, begged the judge to temper justice with mercy.
Abuse
The prosecutor, Chief Inspector Kofi Atimbire, told the court that Udonsi normally accused her daughter of stealing and subjected her to severe beatings.
According to him, on April 5, 2019, Udonsi woke her daughter up at about 12:30 a.m. and accused her of stealing her GH¢119.50 but the girl denied stealing any money.
The prosecutor said the girl’s denial infuriated Udonsi who used a scissors to flog her.
“After that, she took a kitchen knife and used it to inflict multiple wounds on her body and palms, and left the girl to her fate,†he said.
Chief Inspector Atimbire said the girl went out of the room crying with blood oozing out of her wounds.
The girl met a neighbour who had pity on her and managed to arrest Udonsi and took her to the police station.
The police issued a medical form to the neighbour to send the girl to the hospital, investigated the matter and charged Udonsi with the offence.
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Source: graphic