COURT OF APPEAL CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE REVIEW OF CHILDREN'S CODE AND SENTENCING LEGISLATION.

 THE Court of Appeal has called for an immediate review of the Children's Code and any other legislation concerned with the sentencing of children.

The court has noted the limited options for sentencing children as outlined in the Children's Code.

This follows an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions in a case involving a child offender convicted of murder and aggravated robbery.

The child offender, who was 17 years old at the time of the offences, was later placed on probation for one year, in accordance with Section 87(4) of the Children's Code.

The DPP appealed against the probation order, advocating for a term of imprisonment instead.

On January 19, 2022, Miriam Malunga of Chamanika Village in Petauke was found dead in her house, with a missing cash box.

The previous night, Ms Malunga had reported an attack and attempted rape by the child offender.

The police, upon interrogation, discovered the missing cash box in a thicket near Ms Malunga's house.

A post-mortem conducted on January 22, 2022, revealed that Ms Malunga's cause of death was manual strangulation and asphyxia.

Despite the lack of direct evidence incriminating the child offender, circumstantial evidence led the trial judge to convict him of both offences and place him on probation.

In the appeal, the DPP argued that the trial judge should have considered the gravity of the offences and imposed a term of imprisonment instead of probation.

Conversely, the child's lawyer pointed out the absence of provisions in the Children's Code allowing imprisonment as a sentence for children.

The Court of Appeal upheld the probation order, stating that neither the Children's Code nor any other provision empowered courts to imprison children.

Judge Chalwe Mchenga, delivering the verdict, acknowledged the DPP's concerns regarding the sentence's adequacy but emphasised that courts are not the appropriate avenue for resolving sentencing issues.

Judge Mchenga highlighted the challenges posed by the Children's Code, including the lack of imprisonment options for children and the prohibition of holding individuals above 19 years in reformatories.

“This case is a clear exposé of the problem. Unlike the repealed Juveniles Act, which allowed imprisonment of children in exceptional situations, like it appears to have been warranted in this case, the Children's Code does not allow it at all,” he said.

The judge underscored the need for an immediate review of the Children's Code and related legislation concerning the sentencing of children and young persons, in light of the challenges.

“The limited sentencing options that we have just outlined, are by no means the only challenges that have come with the enactment of the Children's Code. But they are of significant importance and it is our view that they warrant the immediate review of the Code and any other legislation concerned with the sentencing of children and young persons,” he stated.

(Mwebantu, Wednesday, May 15th, 2024)