More Trouble For DNA Mom

Celestine Owusu

Celestine Owusu, the woman at the Centre of the DNA baby saga, may soon face another charge, as an elderly woman believed to be in her 70s yesterday stormed the Accra Circuit Court where Ms Owusu and her daughter, Portia Annor Owusu,  have been arraigned, claiming that she had been defrauded by the businesswoman.

The elderly woman, who raised her hand to attract the attention of the trial judge, Mrs. Patience Mills-Tetteh, spoke after she was granted permission but was told by the judge that that case was not before her.

The woman, who said she came after she had been reliably informed that Celestine was standing trial at the court, did not disclose the amount involved and after being told that the suspect was facing a different charge, sat down and nodded her head in disbelief till the case was over.  

The La-Polyclinic Administrator and Senior Nursing Officer, Adam Harei, yesterday testified against the first accused person who has been arraigned for conspiracy and stealing a six-month-old baby.

The witness, in his examination in chief, led by Prosecutor ASP Mary Agbozo, told the court that he did not know the first accused person but said someone with the name Celestine Owusu once attended the hospital on December 17, 2009, saying she was nine months pregnant.

According to him, the medical assistant gave Celestine some painkillers as she claimed she was feeling pains and then transferred her to a gyaenecologist, Dr. Samuel Tettedjie.

He said from the records, the first accused person never accessed ante-natal care and tendered Celestine's patient's folder and other relevant reports to the court in evidence.   

Under cross-examination by Adjei Lartey, counsel for the accused persons, the senior nursing officer said he had a general knowledge in medicine and read out the medical assistant's report on Celestine after he was asked to do so by counsel.

He admitted that when someone reports to a hospital, that person is examined before being treated but said that it is possible that under such circumstances, the medical assistant could just give treatment to ease the pain and then transfer a patient to a senior medical doctor for treatment.

When asked why some other information, such as the patient's temperature and blood pressure was not in the patient's folder, Mr Harei could not explain.

In addition, he denied that the hospital, by failing to fill in certain information about the patient, had failed to properly take care of the needs of their patients.

The accused person and her daughter were granted bail after their lawyer applied for bail for them, saying that contrary to reports that Celestine had packed out of the complainant, Ernest Opoku's house, she rather took some valuables to a friend's house, as some of properties have been vandalised.

He said she would make herself available to the court as and when needed.

The trial judge granted them a GH¢50,000 bail with three sureties and ordered Celestine to surrender her passport in addition. The case has been adjourned to July 6, 2010.

Celestine has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and child stealing while her 21-year-old daughter, Portia Owusu Annor, who claimed to have witnessed the delivery of her younger brother, was charged with conspiracy.

ASP Agbozo, who presented the facts of the case, said about three years ago, the complainant, Ernest Opoku, 43, a Ghanaian resident in Switzerland, rented out one of his shops at Sakumono to the accused, Celestine Owusu, 42.

She said Celestine later told the complainant that she had been ejected from her rented apartment and wanted to lodge in the shop with her 20-year-old daughter, but he decided to offer her a room in his six-bedroom apartment on humanitarian grounds and  the relationship later developed into a romantic one.

ASP Agbozo said after a while, however, the relationship turned sour and the man decided to eject Celestine from his apartment but she refused to move, claiming that she was expecting his baby.

The prosecutor stated that Mr. Opoku denied the claim, since, according to him, the relationship ended two years earlier and proceeded to report the matter to the police for investigations.

ASP Agbozo noted Celestine also took the case to the District and Juvenile Court in Accra where the presiding judge, Mrs Cynthia Wiredu, ordered the two to undergo a DNA test to help establish the parentage of the baby, as the complainant had insisted that the first accused person lied about the pregnancy to blackmail him.

According to the prosecutor, when specimens from both complainant and Celestine as well as that of the child, were taken for tests at the Fairfax Laboratory in South Africa, the result showed that neither the woman nor the man  were biologically linked to the child.

ASP Agbozo said the Department of Social Welfare later ordered the arrest of Celestine and took custody of the baby, who is currently being cared for at the Osu Children's Home in Accra.

The department has also tasked the Human Trafficking Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to launch full-scale investigations to find the baby's biological parents.

By Fidelia Achama