Woman Jailed 10 Years For Killing Grandson

A woman (350 of Karoko Village in Chief Mwinuna’s area in Mpongwe has been sentenced to 10 years simple imprisonment by the Ndola High Court for causing the death of her eight-month-old grandson.
Ndola High Court judge Charles Chanda on Wednesday convicted and jailed Beatrice Chembe after she pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.
Chembe was initially charged with murder.Particulars of the offence are that Chembe, on September 21 last year in Mpongwe, caused the death of Grant Siame.
Facts before the court were that on the fateful day around 14:00 hours, Belesina Siame, the mother of Grant, returned home from attending a wedding ceremony within the village.
The court heard that Ms Siame found that there was no food at home and she decided to get some food from Chembe’s house.
The court heard that Ms Siame found that Chembe was still attending the wedding ceremony and she decided to get some groundnuts to prepare food for the family.
“When Chembe got back, she noticed some footprints and recognised them as Ms Siame’s,” the facts read in part.
Chembe also discovered that mealie-meal and groundnuts were missing from the house and she confronted Ms Siame.
Chembe found Ms Siame with Grant strapped on her back when she confronted her about the missing food.
“Ms Siame admitted having got some groundnuts but denied getting the mealie-meal,” the facts read.
The court heard that Chembe punched and slapped Ms Siame and in the process also hit the baby, which was strapped on her back.
The court heard that Chembe later pushed Siame and she fell on the baby.
Passers-by rescued Ms Siame and when she checked the baby, she realised that it was foaming at the mouth.
The court heard that Ms Siame rushed Grant to a nearby clinic and found that there were no health workers to attend to him and he died in her arms.
In mitigation, Chembe begged the court for leniency because she is now considered an outcast in the village and she is haunted by the death of her grandson.
But passing the sentence, Mr Justice Chanda said he had taken Chembe’s mitigation into consideration but that the life of an innocent child was lost because of food.
“The mother and the nation have been robbed of an innocent child whose potential can never be known,” Mr Justice Chanda said.

Posted by Kunda on April 26, 2014. Filed under CRIME. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry