NOTE: This article contains accusations about child abuse that are disturbing. Please read at your own discretion.
An American couple could potentially face the death penalty after Ugandan prosecutors allege they engaged in child trafficking and torture while caring for a foster child in the country.
Nicholas Spencer and his wife Mackenzie Leigh Mathias Spencer, both 32, were detained by Ugandan authorities on Dec. 9 on charges of aggravated torture after they allegedly kept their 10-year-old foster son in a small, cold room without clothes and abused him for two years between 2020 and 2022.
Court documents presented by prosecutors claim that the couple also outfitted the room with cameras to monitor his “stubbornness” and “hyperactive behaviour.” The boy went to a school for children with special needs.
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Police say that they were alerted to the abuse by a worker at the couple’s home in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, and that they found the alleged CCTV footage from the cameras.
“Our team of investigators established, that the couple kept the victim barefoot, and naked throughout the day, would occasionally make him squat in an awkward position, with his head facing the floor and hands spread out widely, he spent his nights on a wooden platform, without a mattress or beddings and was served cold meals from the fridge,” Kampala police wrote in a statement.
“We believe, the victim could have endured more severe acts of torture, away from the camera,” it added.
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The Spencers pleaded not guilty to the aggravated torture charge, but a new charge sheet presented on Wednesday shows that the couple has been additionally booked for “aggravated trafficking in children.” They have not yet entered a plea for this charge, which carries the death penalty if convicted.
The court document alleged that the couple “recruited, transported and maintained” the foster child “for the purpose of exploitation.”
The couple allegedly had two other foster children, according to prosecutors and Kampala police, who have since been removed from their care and are now under police protection.
Kampala police spokesperson Patrick Onyango claimed the couple used the foster children to solicit money from donors.
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It’s not clear what the Spencers were doing in Uganda because they didn’t have work permits, he said.
The law allows foreigners in Uganda to have foster children, Onyango added.
A lawyer for the couple, who was not identified, was quoted by Ugandan newspaper the Monitor as dismissing the case as a “fishing expedition” by authorities, saying they had no evidence. She was quoted as saying the new charge “doesn’t make sense.”
On Wednesday the U.S. Embassy in Kampala declined to comment on the latest charge. Last week it told Reuters it was aware of reports of the arrest and detention of two U.S. citizens in Kampala and was monitoring the situation, but had no further comment due to privacy considerations.
— With files from the Associated Press and Reuters
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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