Africa-Press – Mozambique. A woman was detained in Beira, accused of stealing a newborn baby only two weeks old.
The case occurred last week, when a 30-year-old woman approached a 16-year-old teenage girl who was carrying her baby boy.
Only a few hours before committing the crime, the detainee had lost her own baby at seven months’ gestation—a stillborn delivered in a maternity ward, O País reports.
As I was leaving [the hospital] to go home, I met another mother at the gate, with her small baby. So, we left together and she decided to go to the market to buy something. When we arrived there [at the market], she got a little distracted and was carrying a heavy load. As she was carrying this heavy load, she gave me the baby to hold, and when she got a little distracted, I took the baby in that moment of despair and went home,” the detainee said.
The woman claimed she intended to present the stolen baby to her husband as if it were their own. “Because I had just lost my child. I was in that despair, wondering how I would explain it to my husband,” she declared.
The police have also detained the father of the stolen baby on abuse charges. “We understand that the father committed the crime of premature union, given that the mother of the said baby is a minor of 16 years of age, a fact which led to the father also being detained,” explained Honório Chimbo, spokesperson for the PRM in Beira.
The crime was solved thanks to public reports. The baby has already been returned to her mother and both are receiving hospital care.
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