Post a comment
Fatmata Kamara has been sentenced to 24 years imprisonment by Justice Adrien Fisher of the Freetown High Court after she was found guilty of killing her newborn baby on Thursday 31st August 2023.
Kamara was standing trial for a one-count charge of murder after she was accused of dumping her newborn baby into a toilet pit.
According to particulars of the offence, Fatmata Kamara on 20th October 2019 at Freetown in the Western Area of the Republic of Sierra Leone killed her newborn baby by dumping it in a toilet pit.
When making the verdict, she was charged with one count of murder and she pleaded guilty to the charge in court therein
During the submission session, State Prosecutor S.C Kekura Esq told the court that they have made an application for the murder trial to be changed to manslaughter of which he said the section has been amended especially in line with the statement of the offense.
He told the court that the convict was impregnated by a married man; emphasizing that she attempted to get rid of the pregnancy several times and in that walling motion of trying, she was called to nature during which she forced the baby to come out, and eventually, the baby came out from her womb into the toilet pit.
The prosecutor further informed the court that, later a neighbor heard the cry of the baby and brought it to the hospital where it was placed on a twenty-one days observation but the baby could not make it.
In his mitigation plea, the defense counsel, I. Bangura Esq told the court that her client was heavily overweighed by distress for conceiving for a married man so much that late at night she was called to nature and decided to use the toilet as the easiest way to trash the baby. He added that the convict administered to herself some native pills to abort the pregnancy.
After listening to both counsels, Justice Adrian Fisher said the case was very serious and that he would endeavor to treat it likewise.
He told the convict that she might not have done the act; noting that there was a much better option like giving the child to someone than dumping it in the toilet pit.
Justice Adrian Fisher, therefore, sentenced Fatmata Kamara to twenty-four (24) years imprisonment.
