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Kitwe Man, 20, Jailed 7 years For Stealing Baby
By MWILA NTAMBI
KITWE High Court Judge Catherine Makungu has sentenced a 20-year-old man to seven years imprisonment with hard labour for stealing an 18-month-old baby.
Cephas Chishala of Mukuba Natwange plots in Kitwe was convicted by the Subordinate Court of child stealing. This is contrary to Section 171 (a) of the Penal Code Cap 87 of the Laws of Zambia.
Particulars of the case were that Chishala, on October 23, 2012 in Kitwe, fraudulently took away a child belonging to Damaless Chanda.
During trial, the baby’s father testified that on the fateful day at 23:00 hours, he went outside his house to answer the call of nature while his wife and baby were fast asleep.
He testified that as he walked back into the house, he met Chishala carrying the baby in his arms and when he confronted him, Chishala put the child on the floor and started beating him.
Chishala managed to overpower the father but he was apprehended by alert members of the public.
When the matter came up for sentencing, Mrs Justice Makungu asked the convict to explain what he wanted to do with the baby.
“Make me understand this, what were you doing with somebody’s baby late at night for that matter?”
Chishala failed to answer the question.
In mitigation by defence lawyer Ignatius Chongwe from the Legal Aid Board, Chishala urged the court to consider that he was a first offender.
“Further, he is an adult juvenile and it is our submission that there is room for reform through the custodial sentence that the court may pass. He is remorseful about the offence he committed and he has learnt a lesson during the period he has been in custody,” Mr Chongwe said.
Mrs Justice Makungu said since Chishala was a first offender, she would send him to jail for seven years with effect from the date of his arrest.
Posted by
Mr.right
April 27, 2013 at 10:54 am
Rubbish!Seven years is nothing for such a serious offence.His aim was to kill an innocent soul for personal gain.I expected life imprisonment or death sentence or 30 years in prison.How can a person who stole a human being be sentence as though he stole cattle?If the baby was killed,think of the trauma the parents could have gone through.Had the fool been tortured,many people could have been arrested because as far as I’m concerned,the fool was sent by rich satanists.All the wanted was blood!I advise the parents to work on the fool so that he does not come out of prison alive after 7 years.
bm
April 27, 2013 at 12:03 pm
strange things do happen these days.
shimwana
April 27, 2013 at 7:15 pm
Lishilu fye ili bakaka. She should have first subjected him to mental assessment at chainama.
engineerz@work
April 27, 2013 at 9:28 pm
Poorest defence lawyer
Bull
April 27, 2013 at 10:03 pm
Maybe he suspects (knows) the child to be his and had a fracas with the mother which the ‘father’ didnt know about. Just a thought.
Snr moderator
April 28, 2013 at 8:53 pm
Many times i fail to understand the Judges. a man steals a goat goes in for 5 yrs. a man steals a human being goes in for 7 yrs! we can replace a goat but not human life. this is equivalent to murder. such act lead to encouragment of would be offend to continue knowing the precedence set by the courts. lets value human life more than properties like cars!
TC
April 29, 2013 at 8:35 am
And why didn’t the mother scream for help? Or did she think it was the hubby picking up the baby?