By Elizabeth Ankunda
31st Oct 2023
The International Crimes Division of the High Court has ordered an American Couple to compensate a child they allegedly tortured with 100 million Shillings.
The couple; Mackenzie Leigh and her husband Nicholas Scott Spencer were accused of intentionally inflicting physical and mental pain and suffering on a 10-year-old HIV-positive fostered son whose name remains withheld in respect of his right to privacy.
The court heard that the couple isolated the boy from other children, withdrew him from school, made him sleep on a wooden slab without a mattress, and repeatedly made him sit in one position on cold tiles with his legs crossed and folded, and fed him on frozen food. The boy was also kept under CCTV surveillance as punishment for misbehaviour under the pretext of instilling discipline in him.
The couple was initially charged with aggravated torture and aggravated child trafficking, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, and child neglect. According to the Prosecution, the couple that has stayed in Uganda since 2017, recruited, transported and kept the child through abuse of position of vulnerability for purposes of exploitation.
The husband was specifically accused of failure to provide the victim with basic needs such as sufficient food, clothing, bedding, and a safe and conducive living environment. They were later charged with overstaying their visa and working in Uganda without a permit, having been employed at New Frontiers Technology Consult Limited and Motiv located at Innovation Village.
The prosecution added that the offences were committed between December 2020 and December 2022 in Naguru, Kampala District. The two initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, but later accepted a plea bargain with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions through which they acknowledged their excesses and agreed to return to the United States.
The agreement shows that the couple was trying to manage the child who allegedly suffers from a complex psychiatric disorder which causes him to engage in seriously disruptive behaviour such as causing physical harm to others, soiling himself and his bedding and defying parental instructions.
Lady Justice Alice Komuhangi Khaukha today endorsed the plea bargain agreement and acknowledged observations by lawyer David Mpanga that there is a systematic problem with no mechanism to take care of unfortunate children in Uganda.
The judge also ordered them to pay 3.3 million Shillings and 1.6 million Shillings for their crimes and in default face a jail sentence of two years and six months respectively. She ordered that the money be temporarily deposited in the Asset Recovery Management Fund account in the Central Bank pending the appointment of a trustee who will manage it on behalf of the victim.
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