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THE Lusaka Magistrates’ Court has sentenced a 28-year-old woman of Kalikiliki Township to four years simple imprisonment for stealing a 4-month-old baby boy from a church premises.
Doreen Mwansa was charged with one count of child stealing and she pleaded guilty.
She stole the baby on October 23 last year in Lusaka.
According to facts which she said were true and correct, Mwansa wanted to deprive Mary Sikazwe of her baby Jackson Sikazwe, a child under the age of 16.
It was heard that on the material day, the baby’s mother went for a crusade at Bauleni School in Lusaka.
While she went outside to change the diaper of the baby, Mwansa came to help babysit while the mother went to get another diaper.
When the mother to the baby returned, she did not find Mwansa and looked for her but to no avail.
The matter was reported to police and ZNBC with pictures of the baby revealed.
On 26 October, 2021, the grandmother to the baby received a phone call from a good Samaritan who informed her that the neighbors suspected that Mwansa had a stolen baby after hearing the baby crying.
The residents locked the house and asked the accused to identify the
baby and she failed.
The residents waited for the baby’s mother to arrive and when she did, she retrieved the baby and reported the matter to Bauleni Police Station leading to Mwansa’s arrest.
In passing sentence, magistrate Hamaundu found her guilty of the offence upon her own admission of guilt.
The magistrate sentenced her to four years, saying this will operate as a lesson to other would-be-offenders.
