A South African mother who tried to sell her 19-month-old baby boy on the Internet for $340 was given a five-year suspended sentence, as it was reported on Thursday. The 20-year-old mother will not spend time in jail, but will live under house arrest for three years.
The woman, whose name won't be mentioned for security reasons of protection on the child's identity,was said to have put the baby up for sale for 5,000 rand in an advertisement on the Gumtree website last year.
A member of the public alerted the police who arrested her in an undercover operation in October, 2015.
“She was given a wholly-suspended sentence of five years,” National Prosecuting Authority spokeswoman in the area Natasha Ramkisson-Kara told AFP.
She will “undergo correctional supervision, which means basically house arrest for a period of three years,” Ms Ramkisson-Kara added. The mother said she tried selling her baby after her boyfriend stopped paying childcare following paternity tests that showed he was not the child’s father.
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