A 20-year-old woman has been arrested by the police for allegedly beating her three-year-old step daughter to death at Mempeasem, near East Legon, in Accra.
Judith Atatsi, unemployed, is suspected to have used the heels of her shoe on the girl for playing with electrical gadgets.
The body of the girl which was found with assault marks all over has since been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue for autopsy.
According to the police, an examination of the body of the deceased revealed several scars from old injuries and two of her teeth had been broken with blood oozing from her mouth when her body was found.
It is said the girl lived with her 27-year-old mother, Felicia Abotsi, a trader at Dzorwulu, in Accra until her father Nana Tano forcefully took her away under the pretext of spending the weekend with her.
The East Legon District Crime Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police, (DSP) Mrs. Belinda Banini said Felicia reported the incident to the police after Tano informed her that her daugther was dead.
According to Felicia, Tano told her that the child was sick and was on admission but refused to give her details about the hospital.
She said Tano later called to inform her that the child had died.
Mrs. Banini said when the police accompanied Felicia to the house at Mempeasem they found the body lying on a bed with blood stains in the house but not a hospital as Tano told Felicia.
According to her, Felicia claimed Tano took the child from her in December 2015 to spend the weekend with the child’s paternal grandmother at Takoradi in the Western Region.
Mrs. Banini said Felicia told the police that, the father told her that, he had been transferred to Bolga, in the Upper East Region, and that he was taking the child with him.
According to Felicia, all efforts to reach her daughter proved futile.
However police investigations showed that Judith used the heels of her shoe which was found with blood stains on.
Judith told the police in her statement that she had left the girl in the room to withdraw mobile money from a vender close by but returned to find her playing with some electrical plugs.
According to her, she got angry on seeing the girl by the electrical plugs and subsequently went out to get a stick which she used to hit the girl on the head twice causing her to pass out but attempts to resuscitate her with water failed.
According to the police Tano brought Judith who is his lover from Takoradi to take care of the deceased while he travelled to Bolga to work.
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