By George M. O. Williams
Kadie, 5, was cruelly beaten by her Aunt (FA) leaving her with a swollen arm and lips, red eyes and scars on her body. The beating occurred on Thursday, September 7, 2023, at the Murray Town Barrack in Freetown.
A senior ‘Mammy Queen’ (Respectable Elder among the women folks) at the Murray Town Military Barracks, Aminata Koroma, reported the matter at the Family Support Unit at the Congo Cross Police Station in Freetown.
Police Investigator Turay is directly in charge of the investigation. He confirmed to Premier News on Friday, September 8, 2023 that the allege perpetrator had been arrested, and is in detention helping the police with the investigation.
The five-year-old girl, was on the same day interviewed by the Sierra Leone police at the Congo Cross Police Station, and she also commenced medical treatment at Connaught Hospital. She is currently in the care of the Ministry of Gender and Children Affairs.
Turay said they had just commenced their investigation, thus he and the complainant refrained from revealing detailed information to Premier News.
In quest for detail information about the incident, the medium on Friday, September 8, 2023, headed for Murray Town Barrack, and located the dwelling house of ‘FA’, the allege abuser, and those who immediately intervened after the incident.
After arriving there and speaking to the closest neighbour of the alleged abuser, Premier News was able to discover that the suspect claimed that the five-year-old victim was the biological daughter of a family relative at the village.
According to that neighbour, the Aunty had wanted to change the name of the victim from ‘Kadie’ to ‘Mummy’, and also forcing victim to refer to her as ‘mother’, both of which the child was unreceptive to because as a five-year-old she is old enough to know that the allege abuser, FA is not her biological mother, and that Mummy is not her name. The persistent refusal of the five-year-old child drove the aunt into a rage, which she unleashed by conducting a violent beating of the five-year-old victim which left her with red eyes, swollen face and arms, a bleeding lips and blisters on her body.
Additionally, the neighbour, furthered explained that ‘FA’ on many occasion had brought children from relatives she claimed to have in the provinces to settle with her, but after some period of time, when the children had grown to a particular age, they will just fade away from the community, after a month or two she will bring in other children to settle with her, they will also fade away after some time.
The neigbhour also suggested that the child does not attend school which is contrary to the terms under which her relatives gave her custody of the child. She stayed at home to help her aunt with domestic chores.
The Neigbhour also said that ‘FA’ only resides in the Barracks because her boyfriend who is a military officer, based on some personal grievances between him and ‘FA’ caused him to pack out of the house leaving her in the barracks.