The magistrate court sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Monday, sentenced a widow, Omoyeni Opeyemi, to three and half years imprisonment for brutalising a 12-year -old boy, Joel Sunday, who was her housemaid.
The convict was arrested after torturing her househelp with a razor blade and a knife at their residence on Adebowale Street, in the Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo State.
During interrogation, it was disclosed that Omoyemi confessed to torturing Sunday for stealing meat and making her incur a debt of N100,000.
Narrating the incident in court, Police prosecutor, Mr Emmanuel Tanimowo said the crime was reported to the police by a community health worker, Mrs Alice Ayedun.
Tanimowo said;
“Mrs Alice Ayedun was going to church when she saw Joel Sunday crying, with blood on his body and the woman was forced to stop to see what was happening; she saw the defendant beating up the boy at the back of the house.
“She immediately rescued the boy from the woman. The defendant had asked the boy to wash the blood off his body after she used a razor blade to cut his body and made open injuries.
“In order to rescue the boy from the woman, Ayedun told her that she was a nurse and that she was taking the boy to a hospital for treatment. The woman later took the boy to the Fanibi Police Station to report the matter, which led to the arrest of the defendant.
“At the police station, she confessed to the crime and that she observed that the boy had packed all the meats in her pot of soup. She said immediately the boy saw her, he tried to run away, but she held him. She later took him to the sitting room where she used the razor blade to cut various parts of the boy’s body. The boy was later taken to the police clinic and currently undergoing treatment, but still in a critical condition.”
The 36-year-old widow who was arraigned before the court on a five-count bothering on attempted murder, child abuse, violence against person prohibition among others, was found guilty of counts one, four and five. The Magistrate, Mrs. O.A Edwin struck out count four.
Edwin then sentenced Opeyemi to three and half years imprisonment over the incident.
