Gya: You have mother, and then you have mother-***

The police and probation services are investigating the circumstances which resulted in an eight-year-old boy suffering second-degree burns to his chest.

Akeem James of 263 Samatta Point, Grove, East Bank Demerara was admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital on July 23 after being scalded on his chest apparently as punishment for losing $500 which he had been given to purchase chicken. Akeem's mother, who was held by the police and subsequently released, has denied this. She claimed that he accidentally came into contact with a stove.

According to reports, the child had been flogged twice prior to being dowsed with a hot liquid and was made to suffer other forms of punishment including kneeling as well as being barred from leaving his Grove home.

...Akeem's father Anthony James who is estranged from the boy's mother said he learned of the situation on July 23, when his mother (Akeem's grandmother), who also lives at Grove, called to inform him of the child's condition.