Nkawkaw (E/R), May 4, GNA - A Community Tribunal at Nkawkaw on Thursday sentenced a 22-year-old trader to 18 months' imprisonment in hard labour for stealing a-day old baby boy.

Margaret Abena Adjei, the trader, pleaded not guilty. Prosecuting, Police Inspector John Padmore Arthur, told the tribunal chaired by Mr William Boampong that on April 24, Mrs Yaa Frah from Noyem, near Nkawkaw, went to the hospital to be delivered of a baby boy.

Adjei approached Mrs Frah soon after she was delivered and through conversation got to know that she needed 16,000 cedis to settle her hospital bill. Adjei gave her the money to settle the bill and she and the baby were discharged. Adjei offered to carry the baby and they took a taxi to town.

When they alighted from the taxi, Adjei gave Mrs Frah two thousand cedis to go to a near by drug store to buy a drug to be given to the baby. When Mrs Frah left to buy the drug, the accused hired a taxi and bolted with the baby.

A witness, who saw the accused at the taxi station, later spotted her with the baby at the outskirts of the town and confronted her. She tried to board another taxi but was arrested and sent to the Police station.

When a search was conducted on her, it was found that she had stuffed her clothes with rags to make it look as if she were pregnant, the Prosecution said.