Mother guilty of infanticide

Senior Magistrate EF M’bai of Brikama Magistrates Court, on Wednesday, imposed the wrath of the law on a young lady who was found guilty of infanticide. The magistrate sentenced the convict to three years imprisonment with hard labour, after she had pleaded guilty to charges of burying her baby alive resulting to its death.

The incident reportedly took place at Brikama Perseverance Street in Western Region, shortly after she gave birth to the child.

During the initial rounds of the court proceedings, the convict had maintained a plea of not guilty, but during the course of the trial in the latter part, she changed her plea to guilty on the advice of her erudite counsel, Lamin K Mboge.

Handing down his judgement, Senior Magistrate M’Bai stated that he has taken into account the fact that the convict changed her plea from not guilty to guilty and the plea for mitigation by the defence counsel, and whatever mitigation might have been given by society. He stressed that the court has the last discretion as to whether to fine or sentence a convict in “certain circumstances. But this is not the kind of case that one should think of much”.

“You are here standing as a convict for a deed you are responsible for,” he reminded the young lady.

Magistrate M’bai then asserted that he believed the act of infanticide had been locked in the convict’s mind, maintaining that that was why she finally committed the crime.

“Probably, you have regretted what you did but that is not important at this point. You have taken away a life which was given by Allah out of His will,” Senior Magistrate M’bai put to the convict.

He went ahead to sentence the young mother to imprisonment with hard labour.