Woman sentenced for stealing three-day-old baby
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Foroyaa
A Gambian court sentenced a woman to three years in prison for stealing a three-day-old baby and ordered her to pay the parents 100,000 dalasis. The defendant, who pleaded guilty, received a reduced sentence in light of mitigating circumstances, Foroyaa reports.
A court in Bundung, Gambia, has sentenced a woman to three years in prison for abducting a three-day-old baby. Magistrate Bittaye also ordered her to pay the child’s parents 100,000 dalasis, Foroyaa reports.
The defendant pleaded guilty at the start of the proceedings and appeared without a lawyer. The magistrate took her plea, lack of previous convictions and request for leniency into account, while emphasising the seriousness of the offence. Gambia’s 2025 Criminal Offences Act provides for up to seven years in prison for child stealing.
According to evidence presented to the court, the mother had temporarily entrusted the newborn to the woman while she went to hospital to provide samples, following a nurse’s instructions. She had not given the woman permission to leave the facility with the child, who was missing for several hours.
The woman said she suffered from a health problem affecting her head and from asthma, but provided no medical documentation. The magistrate said these claims had been taken into account, but given limited weight in the absence of evidence.
Summary produced with the help of artificial intelligence tools, under AFREEQUE’s editorial responsibility.
