Court convicts mother for negligence in daughter’s murder
Makande Second Grade Magistrate’s Court in Chikwawa has sentenced Maureen Dick to two years imprisonment with hard labour for failing to protect her five – year – old daughter who was murdered and had her private parts removed by assailants.
Dick, 24, was on Friday found guilty of failing to protect a child from exposure to physical and moral danger, an offence which is contrary to Section 3 sub section b (1) of the Child Care and Justice Act.
Police prosecutor Martin Thulu said that on the night of February 28 this year, Dick went out hunting for locusts, leaving behind her two young children at home unattended.
“She didn’t return home until the following morning where she proceeded to the market at Miseu Folo to sell her catch,” Thulu told the court.
He added that on her ways back from the market, the mother decided to play a game of chance (gambling) before heading home later in the evening.
“When she arrived home, the convict didn’t take long and returned to her hunting expedition” the court further learnt.
Thulu, therefore, asked the court to impose a stiffer sentence considering that the life of an innocent child was lost due to the mother’s negligence that arose from trivial things.
Passing sentence, Second Grade Magistrate Chiyembekezo Phiri concurred with the state, lamenting over the convict’s inhumane conduct.
Phiri, therefore, proceeded to convict and sentenced Dick to two years imprisonment, saying it would serve as a warning to other would – be offenders.
Dick hails from Juliana Village in the area of Senior Traditional Authority Ngabu in Chikwawa
Some of these offences are not worth sending people to jail especially when you consider the socioeconomic status of the average Malawian. In this case, the other child will be without a mother thus causing more hardship. On the present set of facts, the government has failed this lady’s community by failing to provide security which resulted into the murder of her child. Yet she is the one who gets punished
this is incomplete story,,,, who killed the child and why?