A South Carolina couple moved to Uganda in 2017 to do humanitarian work. They are now facing multiple charges, including child trafficking and torture of a 10-year-old boy they took in as a foster child. If convicted of the charges, they could face the death penalty.
Nicholas Spencer and Mackenzie Leigh Mathias Spencer, both 32, were taken into custody December 9 after their neighbors in Kampala, Uganda complained to authorities about the alleged torture of the child.
The couple fostered three children in 2018 from the Welcome Ministry in Jinja City, after moving to Uganda to do humanitarian work in 2017.
According to a statement released by Ugandan Police on December 13, the couple allegedly kept the 10-year-old boy undressed and barefoot throughout the day. “Sometimes, they would force him to squat in an awkward position,” the statement said. The boy allegedly was forced to sleep on a bare wooden platform without a mattress or bedding. Some of these offenses were captured on video by the neighbors.
One of the caregivers at the family’s home claimed that one boy was tortured because the couple claimed he was mentally unstable, stubborn, and aggressive.
The caregiver said, “I wanted to quit the job; however, I figured if I left without doing something, the torture would have continued.”
At a court hearing, the Spencers were denied bail, and the court heard evidence that the boy, who is HIV positive, had been tortured since 2020.
The Spencers were initially charged with aggravated torture, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, a charge to which they pleaded not guilty.
They later received an additional charge of aggravated child trafficking, a charge that can result in the death penalty if convicted, the state prosecutor said.
The couple’s lawyer, Agence France-Presse, said the aggravated child trafficking charges “don’t make sense” and called the charges “a fishing expedition.”
A new hearing date is yet to be scheduled, and the couple are in custody at Luzira Prison, a maximum-security prison located outside the capitol, Kampala.
In the past, Mathias Spencer set up a GoFundMe for emergency surgery for herself for “joint spinal issues” that had already been treated with seven spinal surgeries.
In her appeal, she said that the couple had moved to Uganda to do humanitarian work but she had to go back to Spartanburg, South Carolina for surgery. She said that she no longer had health insurance coverage, and that the surgery would have to be paid out of pocket.
The lawyer for the couple tried to get them released to go back to the US for surgery, but the request for treatment was denied. The prosecutors claimed there were no ailments that couldn’t be treated within the prison system in Uganda.