A South Carolina couple is free after paying a paltry fine in the East African nation of Uganda after being accused of torturing their foster child after he was found sleeping on a wooden slab, wandering around naked and eating only frozen food, so the authorities said.
Nicholas and Mackenzie Spencer were living near the Ugandan capital Kampala when they were first arrested in December 2022. A nanny who worked for the couple told authorities how their Ugandan-born foster child was treated.
Initial charges against the couple included aggravated child torture and aggravated child trafficking, the latter of which is punishable by the death penalty in Uganda.
The Spencers managed to reach a deal with prosecutors that would see them pay about $28,000 in fines after pleading guilty to child cruelty and degrading treatment.
Activist Proscovia Najjumba called the agreement a mockery of justice.
“How can a couple who admit to beating and abusing a child, depriving him of food and water and keeping him in a cold room without clothes, be sentenced to a lenient sentence, pay a fine and… leave?” Najjumba said opposite AFP.
Nicholas Spencer and his wife Mackenzie Leigh Mathias Spencer sit in the courtroom as the verdict was read out in a Kampala court on Tuesday
Nicholas Spencer, Mackenzie Leigh Mathias Spencer and their foster children. The couple is accused of trafficking and torturing one of the children
The couple also pleaded guilty to violating Uganda’s visa laws by working and staying in the country without documents. They have been living in Africa since 2017.
“The child needed help and support as he had lost his father and been abandoned by his own mother.” “Unfortunately, the defendants failed to deal with his peculiar behavior,” said Supreme Court Judge Alice Kyomuhangi.
Speaking to Portal, the couple’s lawyer, David Mpanga, said their clients were simply trying to discipline and deal with the child, who was difficult to tolerate due to psychological problems.
“Maybe they fired,” Mpanga admitted. The lawyer cited the couple’s lack of experience as parents as the reason for their missteps. The couple began caring for the child in 2018, a year after moving to the country. In total they had three children in their care.
He has been in state custody since his parents’ arrest. He will receive around $13,000 of the fine.
The couple were released on bail in March. The public prosecutor at the time accused them of recruiting, transporting and holding the child by “abusing a vulnerable position for the purpose of exploitation”.
The couple was held in the Luzira maximum security prison.
During her court appearance, it was discovered that Mackenzie Spencer had a leg injury
The couple’s lawyer, David Mpanga, pictured here, told Portal the boy had mental health problems, including aggressive and antisocial behavior, and the couple were trying to cope with a difficult child
Before moving to Africa, Nicholas worked as a staffer for former Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy
It is unclear what humanitarian roles Mackenzie held. She claimed online that she was focused on “empowering and educating women.”
The view from the Spencers’ apartment in Kampala, where they raised three children. Someone who worked at the home reported her
Before moving to Uganda in 2017, Nicholas worked as an assistant to former Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy.
Gowdy left office in 2019 after eight years representing South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District.
Nicholas worked for him as a press and legislative assistant for six years.
His wife Mackenzie claimed in a 2019 GoFundMe that they moved to Africa to focus on “women’s empowerment and education.”
“We are also foster parents to three incredible children,” she wrote in her appeal.
She demanded $28,000 for surgery on her spine, claiming that she and her husband were ineligible for health insurance because they no longer lived in the United States.
Mackenzie received just under $5,000 in donations, but claimed online that the hospital had agreed to foot her entire “$46,000 bill.”
She flew back to Spartanburg, South Carolina, for surgery, leaving her husband and three foster children behind in the United States.
Luzira, where the couple were held, is Uganda’s only maximum security prison that houses both male and female inmates.
It is known for its competitive soccer league, in which some of the death row inmates play alongside those convicted or charged with lesser crimes.
In 2020, the U.S. government filed criminal charges and imposed economic sanctions against a U.S.-based adoption ring that placed Ugandan children who were not orphans with families in the United States.