"Reckless": Caregiver Given Five-Year Jail Term For Killing 11-Month-Old Baby
- A caregiver has been given a five-year jail term after pleading guilty to killing an 11-month-old baby
- The prosecution had discovered that Clara had force-fed the baby, leading to food getting into its airways, killing it
- The court said Clara had acted recklessly with human life and ought to be punished
An Accra High Court has sentenced a caregiver to a five-year jail term for manslaughter.
The caregiver, Clara Yanyi-Ampah, also a trained nurse, manhandled and force-fed an 11-month-old baby at a school in Agbogba in May 2021, leading to the infant's death.
Source: Getty Images
According to the facts of the case, the deceased baby was enrolled in the school in North Legon, Accra, on April 6, 2021, where Yanyi-Ampah was a worker.
According to the prosecution, the infant arrived at school in good health on that fateful day.
However, at around 2:50 p.m., a school teacher, Gladys Osei, entered the changing room while Yanyi-Ampah changed the baby's clothes and attempted to play with it.
She quickly realised despite her attempts, the baby was unresponsive.
When she asked Yanyi-Ampah if the baby was asleep, she said no.
Osei immediately reported the incident to the school's administrator, who rushed the baby to the hospital before contacting the child's father.
On arrival, the parents were told that all attempts to resuscitate their baby had proved futile. The baby was dead.
The issue was reported to the police station, and an investigation was initiated.
During the investigation, the CCTV footage retrieved from the classroom showed Clara force-feeding the baby before changing its clothes.
Clara had pulled the baby's hands to her back while feeding her and poured the food from her cup down her throat after what seemed like the baby was resisting eating it.
Postmortem reports revealed that the baby's airways, trachea and left lung were full of food.
The report concluded that the baby had died as a result of asphyxiation due to aspiration of food.
According to the prosecutor, the school's guidelines required caregivers to always use a spoon when feeding babies.
The trial
During the trial, Yanyi-Ampah initially pleaded not guilty but changed her plea to guilty after reaching a plea-bargaining agreement with the Attorney General's office.
Due to the plea bargain, her initial charge of murder was reduced to manslaughter, and both the prosecution and the defendant's team agreed to a five-year jail term.
The judge, Justice Marie-Lousie Simmons, said she considered the time the defendant had spent in detention since her arrest in 2021, the fact that she did not have a previous criminal record and had shown remorse for her actions before sentencing her to a five-year jail term.
The judge, however, expressed strong disapproval of the accused's conduct leading to the death of the infant, describing it as a "reckless disregard for human life."
Driver kills three-year-old for smashing his phone
YEN.com.gh reported that a driver has been arraigned before the Ashaiman District Court for allegedly murdering a child.
The driver, a resident of Ashaiman, Switzerland, reportedly killed his girlfriend's daughter.
The victim was rushed to the Tema General Hospital after the incident but was clinically pronounced dead on arrival.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
