‘Flogging father’ convicted
A Kumasi circuit court has convicted the 26-year-old father who subjected his three-year-old son to severe beatings for bedwetting.
However, the court, presided over by Mrs Patricia Amponsah has deferred sentencing for the crime to June 9, 2020.
The convict, Ebenezer Osei Bonsu, had early pleaded not guilty for the charge of assault and causing harm, but changed his plea on Tuesday, June 2, to guilty.
He has been on a GH₵30,000.00 bail with three sureties to be justified.
The victim was hospitalised with severe wounds on his back and other parts of the body after he whipped him with a belt and a cable for bedwetting.
He earlier told the court that his action was to discipline the child.
The accused was to be remanded for two weeks, but the judge said that due to the coronavirus pandemic, it would be harmful to remand him.
The convict was represented by lawyer Samuel Amofa Kodua who requested for a bail, saying his client had been in police custody since he was reported to the police.
Prosecutor, Inspector Regina Oparebea Amoako, had told the court that the suspect would be a threat to the mother and the victim; more so, he was not resident in Kumasi and could not be trusted to stay in the area for the trial.
Some of his family members were there at the court premises, on the first appearance, and they debunked the notion by some public that the convict might have some mental illness, that could have possibly led to his actions against his son.
FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE, KUMASI
