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Nokusa Masuku Court Reporter
A TEENAGE mother who dumped her newborn baby in a handbag has been spared jail by a magistrate. Mercy Nyoni, 19, was given a wholly suspended 12-month prison sentence after Bulawayo magistrate Willard Maphios Moyo decided jail time would also be “punishment” for her children.

Nyoni has another child, a girl aged a year and nine months.

Moyo said during sentencing yesterday: “This infant needs your constant presence more than anything else. To separate you from your children at this stage would be punishing them as well.

“However, it should be noted that you committed a very serious offence.

“This offence is so serious that it attracts a maximum prison term of five years. However, due to the ages of your children such a sentence would be punitive to them.”

Nyoni, of Gwabalanda suburb, showed no emotions as the magistrate finished passing sentence. On Monday, she had come to court cradling her four-day-old tot, but she did not appear to have brought the child to the sentencing.

The teenager, who pleaded guilty to exposing an infant to danger on Monday, had her sentence wholly suspended on condition that she does not commit a crime involving exposing an infant within five years.

Her trial heard that she gave birth last Thursday while she was alone in the house at Gwabalanda. Nyoni had concealed her pregnancy from her sister and her sister’s husband fearing being kicked out of the house.

Her neighbour called police at around 8PM on the same day after observing that Nyoni was no longer pregnant , yet she insisted that she never gave birth.

A police officer conducted a search of the house and a baby was heard crying.

Nyoni then showed the police officer a pile of clothes under which she had hidden the baby, who had been wrapped in a plastic bag and then placed in a handbag, prosecutor Mufaro Mageza told the trial.

Nyoni insisted that she had no intention to kill the baby, although medical experts said the baby would not have survived the night.