ZAMBIA – A 36 year old farmer of Chipata, Eastern Province has been slapped with a five year jail sentence after designing the skin of an 11 year-old boy with a razor blade in a bid to make the adolescent strong during fights.

Particulars of the case presented by the Public Prosecutor, Yvonne Nachande before Resident Magistrate Destiny Kalusopa revealed that Nkwizima Phiri, on dates between June 2 and June 31,2022, used a razor blade to put traditional tattoos ‘Ndembo’ on an 11 year-old boy without parents’ consent.

ZANIS reports that Phiri tattooed the minor after convincing him and the friend that he had medicine to make them strong so that they should not lose any ‘physical’ fights.

Tilifonia Banda, the mother to the minor, narrated before the court that she noticed the tattoos on her son’s body after examining him during the time he fell sick and was vomiting blackish substances.

With further examination on the adolescent’s body, Banda noticed that the razor cut marks were in between the boys fingers and also on both of his legs.

She immediately alerted the husband who interrogated the minor-under an oath of secrecy, till he disclosed the source of the tattoos.

Banda said that her son mentioned Phiri as the one that had tattooed him while he was herding cattle with the friend.

She added that after wounding her son with a razor blade, Phiri requested for eggs as payment and warned the minors from disclosing anything about incident or else they would die.

After finding out the truth, the parents reported the matter to Chipata Central Police who later arrested Phiri after conducting thorough investigations.

In his mitigation, Phiri pleaded guilty after initially pleading the opposite.

Following the review of evidence and testimonies, Resident Magistrate Kalusopa sentenced Phiri to five years imprisonment with hard labour for unlawful wounding of a minor contrary to Section 232 (a) of the Penal Code Chapter 87 of the Laws of Zambia.