COURT | CHILD | TRAFFICKING

KAMPALA - An American couple charged with aggravated child trafficking has been committed to the International Crimes Division of the High Court in Kampala, to stand trial. 

Nicholas Spencer, 32, and his wife Mackenzie Leigh, also face charges of unlawful stay in Uganda and aggravated torture for allegedly assaulting their foster child in Uganda. 

The couple was committed to the High Court on Thursday by Buganda Road Chief Magistrate, Sarah Tusiime, after Chief State Attorney Joan Keko informed the court that investigations are complete. 

“Since investigations are complete, I hereby commit you to the International Crimes Court for trial,” the Magistrate ordered. 

Court documents indicate that the victim (name withheld), a pupil at Dawn Children’s Centre - Special Children’s Trust, was at the time of the incident aged 10. 

The victim was living with the accused as his foster parents at their residence in Naguru, a Kampala suburb. 

On November 17, 2013, the Jinja district probation and social welfare officer (not named) took the victim to Welcome Home Ministry Africa, a non-government organisation based in Jinja that takes care of abandoned children, pending their adoption or foster care placement. 

The victim, according to court documents, was abandoned by his mother after the demise of his father. 

According to court documents, in September 2019, the couple applied to the Jinja welfare office to foster the victim and two other children who were under placement at Welcome Home Ministries and their application was granted. 

Spencer and Leigh stayed in Jinja district with the children including the victim until February 2020 when they moved to Kampala and lived at the residence in Naguru until their arrest. 

Report on torture 

On December 7, 2022, Pamela Arinaitwe, who was taking care of the victim and other children, reported a case of torture at Kira Road Police Station, having observed repeated unbecoming inhumane treatment of the victim by the accused persons. She had worked for the American couple for two years and six months. 

In her police statement, Arinaitwe said in June 2022, the victim was subjected to cruel inhuman treatment that included, isolation in a separate room and away from the other children, sleeping on a wooden slab without a mattress, staying naked daily, feeding on frozen food and never allowed to move out of the house, among others. 

Crime scene 

On December 8, 2022, a team of Police officers visited the crime scene at the accused persons' residence and rescued the victim and the other two children and the American couple was arrested. 

Police preliminary investigations revealed that the accused persons continued to engage in employment in the country without valid work permits or special passes.