Granny, 56, put on her defence for assault on child
By Esther Chisola
A FIFTY-SIX-YEAR-OLD woman of Lusaka’s Libala South residential area has been found with a case to answer for assault on a child.
Fannie Longwe is charged with assault on a child, which she has denied.
It is alleged that Longwe, on November 4, 2024, in Lusaka, assaulted a child under the age of 16, occasioning him actual bodily harm.
When the matter came up for ruling on case to answer, magistrate Mutinta Mwenya said the State had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and placed her on her defence.
“I have closely considered the evidence adduced by the State. On the overview of this evidence, there is a prima facie case made out against the accused person. I therefore place the accused on her defence,” Mwenya ruled.
The hearing continues on July 30 for defence.
Earlier, a Lusaka Garden boy, Jacob Phiri, had testified that he witnessed a disturbing scene that prompted him to report a case of assault to a teacher.
The victim was a seven-year-old boy who had been physically abused by his 56-year-old grandmother, Longwe.
The boy had been living with his grandmother after being abandoned by his mother, who is reportedly a drug addict.
Phiri took the boy to school and informed the teacher about the abuse. He explained that the boy was physically abused by his grandmother regularly.
The matter was reported to Kabwata police by a teacher.
Constable Praxida Mutale, 35, under the Victim Support Unit of the Zambia Police Service, testified that she found the boy unwell, swollen, and had a wound on the inside of his lip.
“We asked to see the child. We were taken to the sickbay where we met the boy. When we found him, he was visibly unwell. He was swollen on most parts of the body. He was unable to walk well on his own. And he had some sort of a wound on the inside of the inner lip and the lips were swollen,” he said.
Mulenga said the boy was assaulted with a cooking stick by Longwe after she found that his socks were torn.
