By Hassan Gbassay Koroma
Adama Bangura, a petty trader at Wilberforce, was yesterday, August 31st sentenced to 12 years in prison for killing one Madia Bockrie. Bangura pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter.
According to court records, the convict had already spent six years in prison and that as at the time she was taken into custody, she was already pregnant and had given birth her third to the child.
The particulars of the case states that,the convict on 7th day of November, at Wilberforce in Freetown, had a fight in which he killed the deceased.
The convict till her conviction was standing trial before Justice Adrian Fisher on one count of murder contrary law, a charge that was amended by the court after the application of the State Counsel, Solomon Christian Kekura, for it to be reduced to manslaughter.
According to the medical report, the deceased died of fractured skull, broken spinal cord and sustained several injuries, even though the convict denied fighting with the deceased.
In her plea mitigation, the convict asked for the court to temper justice with mercy, noting that she didn’t wish for what happened.
In his sentencing statement, Justice Fisher said he had listened to the plea mitigation of both the convict and her legal representative, noting that in a situation where a life is lost, such case should be treated seriously.
He said the convict denying that she didn’t go into physical fight with the deceased was not true; because evidence showed that she hit and kicked the deceased severally and medical examination also showed that the deceased died due to injuries that were inflected on her including fractured skull, injured spinner cord and others.
