A GENERAL worker at the Cancer Diseases Hospital in Lusaka has testified in the Magistrates’ Court, alleging she repeatedly heard a young girl scream “daddy, daddy” from a bathroom late at night, accompanied by loud music and running water.
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The testimony came in the ongoing defilement trial of CH, who is accused of defiling his seven-year-old ailing daughter, FH, while caring for her as a patient at the hospital.
Josephine Nakawela, 26, told the court that during her night shifts, typically around 22:00 hours, she would consistently hear the sounds emanating from the bathroom.
Nakawela, who knew the girl as a cancer patient being nursed by her father, described hearing loud music and water running out in the bathroom with sounds of a female child crying while her mouth was covered.
CH, a farmer from Southern Province, has denied the defilement charges.
The alleged incident is reported to have occurred between September 20, 2024, and March 11, 2025, in Lusaka.
Narrating an incident on Sunday, March 9 this year, Nakawela, who reported for her 18:00 hours night shift, stated she began cleaning the wards and toilets around 21:00 hours.
Upon approaching the bathrooms, she noticed male and female children’s clothes hanging.
“In the bathroom the music was playing and water running. It was in the middle bathroom,” she narrated.
“I entered the bathroom and I heard the child screaming daddy, daddy. When the child was screaming, her mouth was being held.”
“I stood there for some time and decided to go to the ward. I went to the first bed in the ward which faces the toilets. On that bed there was a lady called amake Davy. She was a bedside. I asked her if she saw someone entering the bathroom. She said yes, she saw FH’s father entering the birth room,” Nakawela said.
Nakawela narrated that she told amake Davy that she heard a strange noise coming from the bathroom, and invited her to come with her.
“In the bathroom, I asked her if she was hearing any strange noise of a child screaming daddy, daddy, she said yes.”
“Then, Davy’s mother and I remained in the bathroom. I had a mop in hand and I went close to the door and pushed the door of the bathroom because I wanted to tell the person using it that I needed to work. When I pushed the mop the father to FH opened the door and peeped,” she said.
She informed him that she needed to work and he said he would be coming out shortly.
“After some minutes he came out. He came out with his child FH,” she said.
Nakawela further narrated that the following day when she reported for work, a caregiver called her and asked if it was true that the child was crying in the bathroom.
“I told her that it was true, then she said she would report the man to the sister in charge because he bathes the child at 22:00 hours always,” she said.
Nakawela further revealed that the accused slapped one caregiver who asked him why he was bathing the child at 22:hours, questioning if he was doing something to the child at that awkward hour.
The witness said she knew the accused person as father and the victim as daughter since September 26, 2024.
“The daughter was sick and the father was the care giver to the child in question.The child has cancer. The time I saw the child she had a tumour on the one side of the face,” said Nakawela
Trial continues.
By Lucy Phiri
Kalemba June 11,2025
