Sun, 01 Oct 2017 10:02:23 +0000
By JUSTINA MULENGA
A boy who is alleged to have gouged out a friend’s eye has appeared in the Lusaka Magistrate court for assault.
The 18-year-old accused person who was in company of his father after a number of summons, finally appeared yesterday before Magistrate Ann Holland for start of trial.
It is alleged that on May 10th 2017, the accused juvenile offender did assault his friend and unlawfully wounded his eye.
The first witness, who happened to be the victim told the court that the injury was as a result of a misunderstanding.
The juvenile witness explained that the incident happened around 18 hours when he was coming from a friend’s birthday party in the company of other friends.
“On the way to Kabulonga from a party with my friends, we met the accused who learnt that he had been left for the party because he had no bus fare. He got upset, and held a grudge against me because I did not give him some beer,” he said.
The witness further told the court that the accused punched him in the face and later realised that he had fallen in a drainage.
“When I fell in the drainage, he followed me and hit me with an unknown object and later saw blood coming out from my left eye,” he said.
He told the court that upon discovering what he had done, the accused ran away leaving him in a bad state. His friends came to help him get out of the drainage, booked a taxi and took him home.
“Upon reaching home, my aunt saw how badly the injury was and decided to report the matter to police,” he said.
The second witness, also a juvenile told the court that an argument had arisen among them as they were trying to find a shorter route home.
“An argument broke out among us as we were trying to find the shortest way to use to reach home in good time,” he said.
“The juvenile witness told the court that the victim used a different route and left others after a short distance.
“We later found that an argument and fight had broken out between the two, the accused had ran away and we helped our friend out of the drainage who was continuously bleeding from his left eye, he said.
And the third witness, the aunt of the injured victim, Ms Bernadette Malupande told the court that she was following up the case as the victim’s mother was dead.
She told the court that the victim’s mother had given her a call, saying her son had been injured to the eye.
“My sister called me and told me that my nephew had been injured to the eye and needed immediate medical attention,” she said.
She explained that she had no means of transport and advised her sister to get a cab and take the boy to the police for a medical report.
Ms Malupande told the court that the accused father was later called and told that his son had injured his friend who was admitted at UTH for further examinations.
“The father to the accused came and wanted us to rehearse the matter saying he would take charge of all expenses concerning the injury of which he did not,” she said.
She also explained that the doctor told her that the damage was beyond repair and that the damaged eye needed to be replaced with an artificial one.
Magistrate Holland adjourned the matter to October 13th 2017 for continued trial.
