The family of the late Lily Donkor, a third year student of the Achimota School who was killed by her colleague and boyfriend, is up in arms over what it says is too lenient a sentence handed to the murderer of their beloved daughter.
The 18-year-old third year male student of Achimota Senior High School who shot at Lily with his father’s single barrel gun who was facing a charge of manslaughter was on Friday sentenced to three years at the Correctional Home by the Juvenile Court in Accra.
The accused was reported to have brought out his father’s gun under a bed with the intent of shooting in the air but ended up killing his friend.
The facts as narrated in court earlier were that, on January 4, this year, at about 14:00 hours the deceased Lily who lived at Cantonments visited the accused person at Community eight (8) in Tema.
According to the prosecution the accused went into his father’s room and picked up his father’s single barrel gun and shot the victim in the abdomen accidentally as the gravity of the gun changed and hit the deceased.
The victim was rushed to the Port Clinic in Tema, but due to the condition of the victim, she was transferred to the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, where she died on admission.
Speaking to Kasapa News, mother of the deceased, Vivian Donkor said the family finds it difficult to understand why the murderer whose identity was concealed by the court was not given a stiffer punishment for taking the life of an innocent person, when thieves who still less important things like fowls are severely punished with long jail terms.
“How can our hurtful feelings be assuaged when someone who has killed our daughter is sentenced to only three years in a correctional home. We’re vey angry over the jail term, the family is meeting soon to see what next step we can take. We’re not leaving this matter lying down and we’re not ready to forgive the boy and his family. Since day one, his mother never said the truth insisting that it was a knockout that hit and killed my daughter and not a gun. Even when Lily was shot and was writhing in pain in a pool of blood, it took the boy and his family three hours before they took Lily to the hospital and even this was after her elder sister had called her [Lily’s] phone several times which rang unaswered. Is that how to treat someone’s daughter who has visited your home? We’re convinced they deliberately killed.”
Source: kasapafmonline.com