IN a sombre courtroom, the four-year-old boy who was repeatedly beaten and left with fresh and old scars, allegedly by his step mother, told a magistrate that the wounds were inflicted on him by his ‘mother’.
The minor, who will be referred to as IB to protect his identity in line with the Child Code Act, informed the court that his mother used to beat him using a “shamboko” and at some point used a knife to injure him.
IB, who is in baby class, also told the court that his mother also used a hosepipe to beat him.
This is in a case Longwe Ngosa, 29, of Apollo Military Camp, Lusaka, is charged with assault on a child.
Between April 1 and July 31, 2023, Ngosa, allegedly assaulted IB and caused harm on his body.
Ngosa was recently arrested after a video went viral in which the victim was captured narrating to his teacher how his mother has been beating him.
The accused is appearing before Lusaka magistrate Mutinta Mwenya where she pleaded not guilty to the charge and was granted bail but failed to meet the conditions, meaning she will continue being in detention.
During continued trial, the boy narrated that his ‘mother’ used to beat him with a whip, hosepipe and also harmed him with a knife, which caused bruises all over his body, which the court viewed.
Pictures of different women were given to the boy so that he could identify the mother he was making reference to as the person who used to beat him.
IB identified Ngosa as his mother saying “this is mummy”.
He was later asked to tell the court what caused the dark scar on his leg, to which the boy responded: “mummy beat me on the leg”.
The court also noted that the boy had whip marks all over the body.
The child’s teacher also sombrely narrated how she learnt about the torture of her baby class pupil and recorded an interview she did with her and shared it with two people.
She narrated that the child informed her that his mother injured him with a knife and had been beating him using different weapons.
On this day, the child went to school with a bandaged fresh wound on the fingers which caught his teacher’s attention.
“I just want justice for baby IB,” the teacher said.
Trial continues next week
(Mwebantu, Thursday, 2nd November, 2023)