Grandparents Remanded Into Custody …For Causing Severe Burns On Grand-Daughter
By Helena Selby
The grandparents who allegedly caused serious burns to their eleven-year-old grand daughter, have been remanded into custody, when they appeared by an Accra Circuit Court.
The accused persons, Christiana Torkornu and James Agbemavor allegedly put their grand daughter’s buttocks into boiling water, for having frequent bed-wetting habit, and secretly keeping the victim in a room after realizing the degree of burns the victim had sustained.
They were arrested by the police after Good Samaritan anonymously reported the case to the police.
Both accused persons pleaded not guilty o the charges of conspiracy to commit crime and causing harm before the court presided over by Mr. Ebenezer Osei Darko. They are expected to re-appear before the court on February 7, 2013.
The facts of the case are that on January 8, 2013 at 8:10am, a caller who requested anonymity arrived at Nungua Police DOVVSU office and alerted the police that the first accused person, also known as Maame Wolo, who resides in Teshie, a suburb of Accra, together with her husband had harmed her grand daughter.
The Prosecutor, ASP Sarah Acquah told the court that the informant disclosed to the police that the first accused person had made her grand daughter to sit on boiling water in a plastic bowl making her to sustain severe burns on her buttock rendering her immovable and confined to bed, as she had been secretly kept in the room.
She said upon such information, the police moved with the said informant to the scene of the crime and with the help of the informant, the police managed to locate the house of the two accused persons and arrested them.
“It was then that the second accused person confirmed to the police upon instant interrogation that the two of them made the granddaughter to sit on boiled water in a plastic bowl on January 3, 2012 and she had sustained severe burns”, the prosecutor told the court.
ASP Acquah further mentioned that the second accused person told the police that they undertook that action due to the victim’s constant habit of bed-wetting, adding that it was then that the police compelled them to bring the victim out of the room, which the second accused person did.
She further recounted that after thorough examination on the victim’s body, it was discovered that she could neither walk nor sit due to the severe burns she sustained on her buttocks and a portion of her abdomen. She could only lie down, either on her side or in a prone position.
“The two accused person were arrested and the victim sent to the Nungua Police DOVVSU office and the victim was immediately taken to the police hospital, where she was admitted at the children‘s ward and responding to treatment”, the prosecutor told the court.
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