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A 25-year-old woman who was charged for stealing a nine-year-old child has been acquitted and discharged by the Accra Circuit Court. Sarah Amarley Laryea, was alleged to have stolen the child for a period of nine months. She was said to have given the child to a witness who had advised her not to sell the victim. However, she pleaded not guilty to the offence of child stealing at the court, presided over by Ms Sedinam Agbemeva. Before dismissing the case, the judge said an investigation conducted revealed that the fact sheet did not support the charge levelled against the accused. She said the accused person rather found the child around. The judge said �the exhibit established nothing against the accused and as such the court cannot let her open her defence in respect of the case.� The prosecutor, Chief Inspector of Police Kofi Atimbila, had told the court earlier that the child lived in Dansoman with his grandmother and Laryea lived in Teshie, all in the Greater Accra Region. He said on December 13, 2013, the child was sent on an errand in his vicinity and never returned. He said the case was reported to the police but all efforts to trace the child proved futile for a period of nine months. On October 27, 2013, the prosecutor said a relative of the child spotted the victim with another child selling cleaning detergents on the streets of Adabraka. Upon interrogation, Mr Atimbilla said the child narrated that Laryea took her to her house on December 13, 2013 but she could not find her way back home. He said the child led the police to a slum near the James town beach and pointed to a wooden structure where she had been residing with a fisherman. The fisherman, he said, informed the police that Laryea brought the child and indicated that the child was her biological daughter but had no money to cater for her; hence, her decision to sell the child. The fisherman was said to have advised Laryea against her decision and opted to cater for the child instead.