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| A young poverty-stricken girl clutches her child. Image from ca 1884. (Thanks to Wikipedia) |
A young mother believed be in
her 20s has been convicted of an attempted murder charge on Monday.
She was sentenced to three
years suspended jail term with hard labour on Wednesday by the Special Criminal
Division of the High Court in Banjul after Justice Emmanuel Nkea found her
guilty of attempting to kill her son.
The young Gambian woman is
expected to behave or else could be compelled to serve her jail term if she
dares gets into trouble with the laws.
She admitted allegations of
attempted murder of her new born baby boy by dumping him into a well sometime
in 2012. The boy survived.
On July 10, Justice Nkea
observed the social inquiry report, and found that the convict has since her
detention at the shelter for children at Bakoteh shown love and care towards
the victim.
A strong bond has developed
between them, the judge said. The report concluded that she has greatly
regretted her action and undertaken not to do that again, something that
indicates that she is now a changed person, Justice Nkea added.
He also finds the young
woman’s plea for mercy and her demeanor before the court as a fact that she is
truly remorseful of her wrong actions.
“Considering the above as
strong mitigating factors in favor of the convict, the offence with which the
convict has been convicted of is punishable with up to seven years imprisonment
but today (Wednesday) being the first day of the Holy Month of Ramadan, I would
take all the above mitigating factors into consideration,” Justice Nkea said.
He then invoke the provisions
of Section 29 (2) of the Criminal Code in favor of the convict.
The convict’s ordeal followed
an unwanted (teenage) pregnancy, The North Bank Evening Standard, TNBES, is told.
Written by Modou S. Joof & Sulayman Ceesay
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