How Africa News
An American couple jailed in December for abusing a 10-year-old boy in their care were granted bail by a Ugandan court on Thursday, according to their lawyer.
Nicholas and Mackenzie Spencer, both 32, must answer for “aggravated child trafficking” and “aggravated torture” against the young boy between December 2020 and December 2022, according to court records seen by AFP.
The pair was detained in December after a report from the child’s babysitter, who was educated in a special school for challenged children. The nurse had complained about “repeated inhumane and unacceptable treatment.”
Besides from being charged with “torture” and “kid trafficking,” all of which are punishable by life imprisonment, they are also accused of being in Uganda on an expired visa.
The pair, who deny all charges, were being held in a maximum-security jail outside Kampala.
At a bail hearing on Wednesday, Judge Isaac Muwata temporarily released the pair on the condition that they post a bond of 50 million Ugandan shillings (12,000 euros) and give over their passports to Ugandan authorities, according to their lawyer David Mpanga.
The pair explained to the judge that they both had a rare condition that could not be appropriately treated in Uganda’s prison system. The magistrate decided to let the pair out of prison for treatment.
Upon their arrest in December, authorities discovered evidence that the child slept on a “wooden platform, without a mattress.”
The boy was one of three children under the couple’s care. Foreign child adoption has sparked debate in Uganda.
In 2020, US authorities sued and sanctioned a US-based adoption organization that matched non-orphan children with US families.
