The 27-year-old woman, Jacinta Oduro Kwarteng, who stole a two-week-old baby at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and sold her for GH¢30, was on Monday discharged by the Accra Gender-based Violence Court. The woman, whose baby was stolen, told the court on Monday that she was no longer interested in the case following which Jacinta was discharged. However, before being discharged, the judge told her (Jacinta) that she could be re-arrested whenever the child’s mother had a change of mind. Jacinta, who was being tried on one count of stealing, was full of smiles as she was discharged at about 9:35a.m and left the courtroom to join some women who were waiting for her. Jacinta’s counsel, Selassie Furney, had on February 10, told the court that her client was not in the right frame of mind to stand trial, and prayed the court to give an order for her mental state to be determined by a psychiatrist. Although the prosecution had insisted she “is 100 per cent sound”, the court presided over by Mrs. Georgina Mensah-Datsa ordered a psychiatric evaluation to be conducted to ascertain if she was in a good state of mind to stand trial. After months of evaluation, the Accra Psychiatric Hospital declared her fit to stand trial, stating in its report that she “remains able to understand the nature of her offence, to plead, instruct counsel, challenge jurors and follow proceedings in court.” The court consequently, began hearing the case. However, on May 24, the court was informed by Jacinta’s legal team that she had stripped naked in town the previous day. According to the legal team, they received a telephone call from Jacinta Oduro Kwarteng’s relatives on May 23 that she (Jacinta) had stripped naked in town, and was subsequently taken to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital where she was admitted. But a psychiatrist from the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, who gave his name as Dr. Danso, told the court that although he saw Jacinta on the premises of the hospital, there was no record to show she had been admitted there. The case as before the court is that on January 31, Jacinta who was in an all-white outfit and sitting on the nurses’ desk at the Out-Patient Department at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, was approached by the baby’s mother. The mother was in hospital for a review, but that was re-scheduled for February 2, since the doctor was off duty. Before leaving the hospital, the prosecution said, the baby's mother approached Jacinta and asked her to weigh her baby for her to which Jacinta offered to assist her to see another doctor. Jacinta, therefore, asked the mother to leave the baby with her aunt with whom she came to the hospital, and she obliged. According to the prosecution, on their way to see the doctor, Jacinta asked the baby’s mother to wait for her while she picked up a laboratory result. Jacinta, however, went back to the mother’s auntie, told her that the doctor had asked her (Jacinta) to come for the baby and she handed the baby to her. After waiting for sometime without Jacinta showing up, the baby’s mother went to where she left her baby with her aunt only to be told that Jacinta had come for the baby. The prosecution said efforts to trace Jacinta proved futile and a report was made to the police. She was later arrested at Dansoman and she confessed to having stolen the baby and sold to one Attaa. The police are yet to arrest the said Attaa who reportedly dumped the baby in a bush at Assin Fosu in the Central Region. Source: The Ghanaian Times/Ghana