[ 2016-07-20 ]

Woman kills boyfriend’s daughter
The East Legon Police have arrested a 20-year-old
woman for allegedly beating the three-year-old
daughter of her boyfriend to death at Aboadae
Street, Mempeasem, near East Legon in Accra.

The suspect, who has been identified by the
police as Judith Atatsi, unemployed, is suspected
to have used the sole of her shoe to beat the girl
for playing with electrical gadgets.

The body of the girl, which was found with
assault marks on it, has since been deposited at
the Police Hospital morgue for autopsy.

The police found the girl lying supine, with
bloodstains all over her body, in her father’s
room where the man stayed with the suspect.

According to the police, an examination of the
small girl’s body revealed it had scars from old
injuries and fresh injuries.

Two of her teeth had been broken, with blood
oozing out of her mouth, when the body was found.

The deceased was said to be staying with her
27-year-old mother, Felicia Abotsi, a trader, at
Dzorwulu in Accra until her father forcibly took
her away on the pretext of spending the weekend
with her.

Police

Confirming the incident, the East Legon District
Police Crime Officer, Deputy Superintendent of
Police (DSP) Mrs Belinda Banini, said the suspect
was arrested following a complaint by the
victim’s mother that the child’s father had
called her to come and take her dead baby from his
room.

She said when the police accompanied the
complainant to the house at Mempeasem, they found
the body lying on a bed, with bloodstains on it.

According to her, the child’s mother claimed
the girl’s father took the child from her in
December 2015 to spend the weekend with her
paternal grandmother in Takoradi in the Western
Region.

She said the father, identified as Nana Tano,
later refused to return the child.

Mrs Banini said the complainant told the police
that Nana Tano later claimed he had been
transferred to Bolga in the Upper East Region and
that he was taking the child with him.

Subsequently, she said, the deceased’s mother
claimed all efforts on her part to see the child
or speak to her by phone proved futile.

Angry stepmum

The suspect, who is said to have abandoned the
child’s body in the room, claimed after her
arrest that she used a stick to hit the girl
twice, resulting in her death.

However, the police said their investigations
showed that the suspect used the heels of her shoe
which was found with bloodstains on it.

Judith is said to have told the police in her
statement that she had left the girl in the room
to withdraw mobile money from a vendor close by
but returned to find her playing with some
electricity plugs.

She is said to have told the police that she got
angry on seeing the girl by the plugs.

She said she subsequently went out to get a stick
to hit the girl on the head twice, resulting in
her passing out, saying attempts to resuscitate
her with water failed.

Mrs Banini said although Judith claimed she
called for help, a co-tenant denied knowledge of
that.

Father

Nana Tano, believed to be in his 30s, is said to
have brought Judith from Takoradi to take care of
his daughter while he travelled to Bolga to work.


The man, said to be a supervisor in a private
company, is said to shuttle between Accra and
Takoradi.

He is said to have called Felicia about 11:30
p.m. on July 16, 2016 to come for her child’s
body from his room at East Legon, since he was in
Bolga.

Mother of deceased

When contacted, Felicia said she had been calling
Tano to plead with him to allow her to talk to her
daughter by phone, “but he usually gave excuses
that he was either at work or the child had gone
to school”.

She said on July 14, 2016, she called to enquire
about her child and to speak to her but the father
claimed he was not at home.

Two days later, she said, she called again and
Tano claimed the child was doing well and that he
would call her back for her to speak to the child
when he got home.

She said later in the night on that same day Tano
called her and said the child was sick and had
been admitted to a hospital at East Legon.

Felicia said although Tano could not give her the
name of the said hospital, she decided to go and
look for her daughter.

She said Tano called her three minutes later to
tell her that the child was dead and that the body
was in his room.

Source - Graphic Online

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