BARCLAYVILLE, Grand Kru – Police in Grand Kru County have charged six persons as a result of recent mob violence allegedly meted out against a 78-year-old woman, Susannah Quire Wallace and her 44-year-old son, Victor Wallace, who were reportedly tortured on suspicion of being involved in witchery, in that part of the country recently.
The Crime Services Department (CSD) of the Liberia National Police (LNP) along with the Women and Children Protection Division of the LNP Grand Kru police detachment recently charged the suspects with multiple crimes and are awaiting court trial.
According to the LNP Grand Kru CSD, the six suspects were arrested on July 19 and charged with gang rape, criminal attempt to commit murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, criminal mischief, and theft-related offenses due to their alleged involvement in the July 11 mob justice melee in Patty Garraway Administrative District in Trehn Statutory District, Grand Kru County.
Eleven other individuals allegedly connected to the mob violence incident, who are said to be on the run and are being pursued by police, were also charged in absentia, according to police sources.
Those in police custody in Barclayville are Gabriel N. Quire, 73; Robert Brown, 67; Moses D. Peahen, 64; George G. Dobboh, 46; Wilson F. Toe, 47 and Johnson K. Hinneh, 34.
The six suspects, according to police sources, underwent police interrogation and were acquainted with their Miranda rights.
The 78-year-old, Susannah and her 44-year-old son, Victor, were accused of indulging in sorcery against one of their male family members, Welka Wallace, who grew weak and temporarily lost consciousness while brushing his farmland.
After the incident, he consulted a traditional witch-doctor in the area who accused the 78-year-old woman and her son of being responsible for what happened to him on his farm.
According to the police charge sheet, the six suspects explained that the woman and her son admitted to the town people after the traditional consultation that they were involved in the incident on the farm.
They indicated that the woman and her son’s unwillingness to cooperate with the traditional investigations were construed as making a mockery of them, prompting their mob action.
Police probe conducted further indicated that the traditional elders allegedly tried to force 45-year-old Victor to have sex with his mother, something he refused to do.
The six suspects and other suspects then allegedly inserted a stick into Susannah’s private part, stripped her naked and paraded her in the center of the town.
According to a police report, because of victim Victor’s failure to have had sexual intercourse with his mother, he was maltreated by elders of the town.
The elders allegedly heated a cutlass in a fire and stuck it on several parts of his Victor’s, including his private part.
Meanwhile, the 78-year-old woman and her son have denied being involved in sorcery, according to the state-run Liberia News Agency (LINA).
Source: LINA
