By Fatima Kpaka
Justice Adrian Fisher of the high court has on Thursday, August 31, 2023, sentenced Fatmata Kamara to 24 years in prison for dumping her new born baby boy into a pit latrine.
Prior to the judgement, state counsel Lawyer S. C. Kekura applied for the indictment of murder dated October 20, 2019, to be amended and also for offence in the indictment to be deleted and replaced with the crime of manslaughter.
His application which was made pursuant to section 148 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1965 was successful.
The convicted accused was standing trial before the learned judge on one count of manslaughter contrary to law.
The particulars of offence states that the accused on October 20, 2019 in Freetown unlawfully killed “baby police”.
When the charge was read and explained to the accused, she pleaded guilty to the offence.
The prosecutor in a brief fact of the case stated that the accused on Monday, September 30, 2019, was at her resident and she felt the need to use the toilet and whiles using the toilet, being a pregnant woman at that time forsook the child in her womb.
According to the Judge the background of the story indicated that the accused was a pregnant woman who knew that she had been impregnated by her husband, but was never ready to have the child, and she had tried so many times to remove the baby from her womb but had been unsuccessful. So, she used the toilet as a place to dump the toilet.
Lawyer Kekura added that the baby was later rescued by one Kumba who took it to the hospital, but it died later.
Lead defense counsel I. Bangura, of the Legal Aid Board, in response conceded to the fact as relayed by the judge, adding that the accused had been impregnated by a married man to whom she had brought notice of the pregnancy. He said that initially the man responsible for the pregnancy was taking for the care of the baby, but later ceased.
He said the accused felt the need to get rid of the pregnancy having regard to the fact that she already has three kids who were not being taken care of by their biological fathers, and that the prospect of having a fourth subjected her to a state of confusing. The accused, according to him, was taking herbs to get rid of the pregnancy. He said it was later in the night that she felt the need to use the toilet and when she got there it occurred to her that the child came out of her womb and was deposited into the pit.
He added that with all that, the accused had not waisted the court’s time and had pleaded guilty to the offence. He therefore pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy on the grounds that she is a first-time offender who had never participated in any criminal offence. He emphasized the fact that the accused has three other kids who are in dear need of their mother.
The accused, he said, had spent four years in prison, and he further pleaded with the court for a lighter sentence.
The accused in her plea for mercy said she had been stressed up, and that it was out of that which she did what she did.
The learned judge in reply said that in spite of the accused’s circumstance disposing of the baby was not an option as there are many mothers who have children without fathers, but has never thought of killing them.
While delivering judgement, Justice Fisher said that after the child had been dumped into the pit by the accused without any remorse, it was one Kumba who raised the alarm, and that the accused was at the scene, but never showed any sign of remorse, until the police observed blood stains on her, which caused them to arrest her.
”There is evidence to show that the accused heard the child crying in the toilet and never raised alarm but instead went to bed to sleep until one Kumba raised the alarm,” he said.
The maximum sentence for such offences, according to the judge, is life imprisonment.
He said the accused lied to the police that she had told the father of the deceased, and that he was taking care of her, but later said the father was not taking care of her.
The killing of the child, according to the judge, was premeditated and that the accused always had the intention to kill the child.
He said the baby was a defenseless newborn who had been killed by the accused and as such he will treat the aspect of the case as an aggravating factor arising from a mother and child relationship.
”I consider this case a distressing one and I have never heard such. The mother took no steps to show maternal instinct to provide food for the child. She failed as a mother in her duty to the child and as a human being and pose a threat to any other child,” he stated.
In the circumstance, Justice Fisher sentenced the accused to 24 years imprisonment minus the time spent in prison.