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**Historian** · December 30, 2008, 12:32 PM

Originally posted by Mosiah View Post

19-year-old mom allegedly ties up toddler, leaves her at old animal hospital
Cops say woman was getting dressed for Sting when they caught up with her
BY COREY ROBINSON Sunday Observer staff reporter robinsonc@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, December 28, 2008

A 19-year-old woman who allegedly tied up her two-year-old daughter and left her at an abandoned animal hospital on Spanish Town Road in Kingston to attend a dancehall concert, spent last night in police lock-up and is expected to be formally charged tomorrow.

'God saved her' - Two-year-old survived four days without food, water
Published: Tuesday | December 30, 2008

Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter

A resident points to the area at an abadoned animal hospital off Spanish Town Road, west Kingston, where an abandoned two-year-old girl was found. - photos by Norman Grindley/acting Photography editor

Residents of Denham Town and surrounding communities are describing as a major miracle the revelation that an abandoned two-year-old child survived for four days without food and water.

Medical authorities say it is not unusual for an abandoned child to survive for this period, but the residents are not convinced and they believe the child was under the special protection of a divine force.

The residents also believe that the circumstances under which the child was found were also part of a miracle.

"A God saved her," one resident declared when The Gleaner visited the community yesterday.

The child was abandoned by her mother in an old animal shelter off Spanish Town Road in west Kingston last week Monday and was not found until late Friday eveningafter a woman passing the premises heard her cries.

"Me hear crying like a baby. Three times me hear, 'Mommy, Mommy, Mommy', and me go home and tell me husband and him seh a duppy," the woman, who gave her name only as Stephanie, told The Gleaner yesterday.

Her husband returned to the scene with her and they heard one cry of 'Mommy' from inside the abandoned premises, but he was not convinced that it was not an evil sprit trying to lure them into the building.

"Me tell her say a duppy and she alone not to go in there, but she insist and she go tell a DC (district constable) who live nearby," Stephanie's husband said.

The district constable called the fire service and, after a lengthy search, the firefighters and residents found the two-year-old tied by the hands underneath a tree in a dark section of the premises which once housed kennels.

The other side
The residents noted that if the child had been abandoned on the other side of the premises, near the Boys' Town football field, no one would have heard the cries.

"Some fat hogs used to over there and if them did still there, them woulda eat the baby," Stephanie said.

"All some bad dogs over deh and it's a miracle that them nuh eat the baby," she added.

But, even as the residents celebrate what they claim was a miracle for the child to be found alive, chief medical officer in the Ministry of Health, Dr Sheila Campbell-Forrester, told The Gleaner that a child could survive for four days without food and water. She noted, however, that the child would be very hungry and dehydrated.

Additionally, Campbell-Forrester pointed out that the child would be severely traumatised.

The baby was still in hospital in serious condition up to late yesterday.
arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com

**Historian** · December 30, 2008, 12:36 PM

More On The Abandoned Baby Issue

Police get flak for abandoned child

Published: Tuesday | December 30, 2008

Erica Swaby laments the alleged abandoning of a two-year-old girl by one of her neighbours.

Residents of Goffe Way in Denham Town, west Kingston, are angry with the police over what they say was a failure to protect a two-year-old girl they claim was left by her mother to die.

Nineteen-year-old Nicolette Ledford was yesterday detained under the Child Care and Protection Act after she allegedly abandoned her daughter in an old animal shelter off Spanish Town Road in Kingston.

Superintendent Delroy Hewitt, head of the West Kingston Police Division, said they would seek legal advice from the director of public prosecutions before laying charges.

Two years of abuse
Ledford's neighbours are pointing to what they claim were two years of abuse of the child and one bad decision by the police which thwarted their efforts to save the baby born with a physical deformity.

"We see the little baby girl naked and eating her own filth and we take her to the Denham Town Police Station, but the police returned her to her grandmother who took her back home," a livid neighbour, Erica Swaby, told The Gleaner.

However, an officer at the Denham Town Police Station defended the action of the police.

"We returned the child to the grandmother because we found her to be a fit and proper person to take care of the child," the officer said.

Efforts to contact Nicolette's mother were unsuccessful as she was said to be at work.

The residents of Goffe Way were not sure if their neighbour was at home, but they were adamant that the entire family, including the grandmother, should shoulder the blame for endangering the life of the two-year-old.

In nearby Trench Town, residents who assisted the firefighters in their search for the child on Friday night were equally upset and bewildered by the action of the 19-year-old whom they considered as a "bright (intelligent)" girl who attended Denham Town High School.

Ledford was held by the police at a friend's house, also in Denham Town, as she prepared her hair to attend the popular dancehall stage show Sting last Friday night. The man who gave her the tickets is still in shock.

"Mi get the pass them fi go Sting but true me change me mind, me give her and me see say something wrong but when me ask her, she say she cool," the popular videographer told The Gleaner.
arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com

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