Following what can be described as one of the most publicized court cases involving a Nigerian couple in the UK on charges of child abuse, Nigerian parents, Joseph and Gloria Musa have each been sentenced to seven years in jail.
Their ordeal gained media frenzy since April 2010 when their five children were taken away from their custody on grounds of child abuse. They were accused of claiming that their six children were posessed by evil spirits and beating them with brooms, hoovers and wires. They were also accused of giving their baby a morphine overdose just days after her first birthday.
According to Telegraph, the children were taken away from their parents after their nine year-old daughter threw a heart-wrenching SOS note out of a window in April 2010. The reported content of the note read:
According to Telegraph, the children were taken away from their parents after their nine year-old daughter threw a heart-wrenching SOS note out of a window in April 2010. The reported content of the note read:
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“My mum is the worst mum ever because she can’t cope with five of us, her broken hand and being pregnant. She always leaves me out so I always starve and I am forced to work. If I don’t get enough house work done, I am beaten without mercy with the wooden end of a broom. I have scars all over me to prove it. I can’t stay here. I would like a new mum.”
The note was found by a neighbour who called the police.
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The eldest daughter had revealing scars on her body to the police and said her mother had hit her with a cable, a broom, and a hoover and her father had dangled her by her feet down the stairwell of the house, tied her hands behind her back and her legs together “to get the devilish spirits out”.
Her sister, who was seven at the time, had a stick shaped bruise of her thigh and after a few months in care, she drew a series of pictures showing her dad beating her and her being left home alone and including a speech bubble saying ‘I’m hungry.’
The children were left home alone for hours, sometimes days on end, with the elder kids forced to look after the others.
They had even been forced to lie to a charity and social services that they were living alone with their mother in one room and had no idea who their dad was so they could scam benefits.
Her sister, who was seven at the time, had a stick shaped bruise of her thigh and after a few months in care, she drew a series of pictures showing her dad beating her and her being left home alone and including a speech bubble saying ‘I’m hungry.’
The children were left home alone for hours, sometimes days on end, with the elder kids forced to look after the others.
They had even been forced to lie to a charity and social services that they were living alone with their mother in one room and had no idea who their dad was so they could scam benefits.
Some parties who spoke on behalf of the Musa’s described their ordeal as a violation of their human rights and one of the worst cases of child snatching.
As they left the court yesterday, they wailed: “We are innocent, this is a miscarriage of justice”. The couple face deportation to Nigeria once they have served their sentences.
This family’s ordeal has created a buzz online and in the Nigerian community, UK ever since it broke out. With their sentencing, many are still on the side of the couple saying their children were unjustly taken away from them and the sentence was unfair.
We only hope they get justice if they have indeed been wrongly accused.
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