Dowa First Grade Magistrate Court has sentenced a 20 year-old woman to three years in prison for wounding her ex’s daughter.
The convict, Precious Kapala, pierced the rib region of the 4-year-old girl Mercy Kaweta with a sharp object.
On Thursday, the court through police prosecutor Agnes Mphinga heard that the convict and the father of the victim were in love affair some years back.
“Later after a short period of time the man married another woman, and they were blessed with the baby girl now the (victim). This did not go well with the convict who sought ways of punishing her former lover,” Mphinga said.
Now four years later, the convict went to the girl’s school and cheated her that she was her aunt and that she wanted to buy her sweets.
But after walking a short distance on their way to buy the sweets, the convict injected the girl with a sharp object believed to be a needle and ran away.
“The victim started crying and went to her teacher, who reported the matter to her parents and then to Dowa police station,” she added.
A medical report from Dowa District Hospital revealed that the girl was injected in the interior rib region of her left side with something like an injection and had a wound of about 1cm deep.
The convict admitted the charge of unlawful wounding. When asked why she did this, she told the jam parked court that she wanted to punish her former husband, because he did not marry her.
In mitigation she asked the court for a lesser sentence saying that she has a small child and she takes care of her mother.
The police prosecutor asked the court to give her a stiff sentence saying she showed a bad behavior since this has brought fear to the parents.
His worship second grade magistrate Ezekiel Kantikana then sentenced the woman to three years imprisonment with hard labour.
The convict comes from Chithope Village, Traditional Authority Mkukula in Dowa district.
