A 25-year-old cook in Ho, Jemima Kwaku, is facing trial at the Ho Circuit Court for allegedly burning her 11-year-old son with a heated pressing iron as punishment for misplacing his pen.
Prosecutors told the court, presided over by Abdul O. Hakeem, that the accused locked the boy in a bedroom at Ho Barracks–New Town on July 15, heated the iron, and pressed it against his belly, chest, lips, shoulders, and back. She later warned him not to reveal the assault.
The boy, however, confided in his teacher after being noticed unusually quiet at school on July 18. The matter was reported to the headmaster and then to the police. He was taken to hospital for treatment and is now under social welfare care.
Kwaku, who appeared in court on July 21, pleaded not guilty to causing harm but admitted the act in her caution statement. She has been remanded in prison custody until August 19.
The prosecution noted that the abuse was triggered when the child explained that a classmate had borrowed his pen and forgotten to return it.
This case follows a similar incident in Ho in May last year, when a 62-year-old woman, Margaret Gafa, was arrested for burning her nine-year-old niece for failing to sell kebabs before school. That child also ended up in social care.
