19-year-old girl slashes throat of her day-old baby

A 19-year-old girl has cruelly slashed the throat of her day-old baby and dumped the body in a cocoa farm at Atenrom, a village near Akyem Etwereso in the Eastern Region.

The suspect, whose name was given as Patience, better known as Mummie, self-delivered a baby boy last Friday dawn but claimed some parts of it looked like an animal.

The suspect, according to a witness, Nana Owusu, took the baby into a nearby bush and slashed the baby’s throat with a kitchen knife.

Mr Owusu said Patience, who already has a five-year-old child, is believed to be suffering from depression. According to him, the teenager left the village to stay in Accra where she got pregnant and recently returned to her village in the Akyemansa District.

The teenager, the witness said, refused to disclose the whereabouts of the baby after several demands by her uncle and elders of the village. Her refusal compelled the youth of the community to mount a search and after several hours the lifeless body of the baby wrapped in a sack was found in a cocoa farm.

The suspect has since been arrested by the Akyem Ofoase District Police to assist in the investigations. Meanwhile, the body of the baby has been deposited at the Oda Government Hospital morgue.