Woman, 32, jailed 7 years for harming girl, 10

Veronica Koranteng, the 32-year-old woman who dipped the hands of her husband’s 10-year-old niece into boiling water, has been jailed seven years with hard labour by the Odumase-Krobo Circuit Court.

Veronica, an undertaker, pleaded guilty to causing harm to the girl when she appeared before the court presided over by Mr Francis Gbedzro, and was sentenced on her own plea on December 22, 2020.

Alleged incident

Presenting the facts, the prosecutor, Detective Sergeant Leticia Acheampomaa, said the girl had been living with her uncle and his wife at Kpong in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality for the past 18 months.

The prosecutor said on July 15, 2020, Veronica asked the girl to clean their room, but even after the girl had delivered as she was instructed, Veronica was not convinced that the work had been done.

She said Veronica then dipped the girl’s two hands in boiling water.

The prosecutor said upon seeing the impact of her action, Veronica dipped the girl’s hands in a bucket of freshwater, and warned her not to disclose her ordeal to anybody, including her husband, the girl’s uncle.

The girl’s hands, however, started deteriorating and which affected her health thereafter.

Arrest

The prosecutor said on September 21, 2020, another uncle of the girl visited the family and upon seeing the child’s condition sent her to her parents at Kpetoe in the Volta Region where she narrated her ordeal.

The parents then lodged a complaint at the Kpetoe Police Station, and the case was referred to the Kpong Police who arrested Veronica and her husband and handed them over to the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service at Akuse.