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The boy attempted to pull sheets from the machine. “It started again,” Justice Mensah recalled. The machine caught the boy’s hands, leaving almost all his fingers gone. The trauma was so severe that the boy would appear in court with his hands hidden in his pockets.
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Justice Philip Bright Mensah has recalled one of the most painful cases he encountered during his judicial career, a young factory worker who lost almost all his fingers in a workplace accident.
Speaking to Kafui Dey, the retired Supreme Court Justice said the case left him struggling to contain his emotions and forced him to confront the devastating consequences of poverty.
The young boy had been employed at a factory to count sheets coming out of a machine. According to Justice Mensah, the machine stopped during his first week on the job.
The boy attempted to pull sheets from the machine.
“It started again,” Justice Mensah recalled.
The machine caught the boy’s hands, leaving almost all his fingers gone.
The trauma was so severe that the boy would appear in court with his hands hidden in his pockets.
Justice Mensah eventually asked him to come closer to the bench so he could see the extent of his injuries.
That was the moment the judge said he had to restrain himself.
“I have to restrain myself otherwise I would have cried,” he told Kafui Dey.
But what affected Justice Mensah most was not only the horrific injury. It was the circumstances that had pushed the boy into the factory in the first place.
“I told myself that poverty, it’s not only a disease but it’s evil,” he said.
Justice Mensah explained that if the boy’s father had had enough money to keep him in school, the teenager might never have ended up working at the factory.
The injured boy spent about three months in hospital. But even after leaving hospital, the family struggled to afford the treatment and support he needed.
He eventually remained at home while the case continued.
Justice Mensah said the court ultimately awarded him substantial damages to help deal with the consequences of the accident.
But there was another devastating twist.
The boy’s father died from shock following his son’s accident.
“For me, these are some of the experiences you will encounter as a judge,” Justice Mensah said.
The story offers a glimpse into the human realities behind court judgments where a case file can contain not just legal arguments, but the consequences of poverty, lost opportunities and shattered lives.
For Justice Mensah, it remains one of the cases that stayed with him long after the courtroom emptied.
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