The 18-year-old youth who pleaded guilty to burglarising Democrat House, the headquarters of the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), has been given a chance to stay out of jail.
On Monday, Aswell John returned to the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court for sentencing after a two-week stay at Her Majesty’s Prison, while awaiting his sentence.
Senior Magistrate Rickie Burnett ordered him to pay EC$390 by Jan. 15, 2019 or spend three months in jail for damaging two hasps and staples, two padlocks and easel and whiteboard at Democrat House.
The man was further sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for 12 months, for burglarising the same building.
However, while he was free to leave the court on the burglary charge on Monday, John was further detained on an unrelated outstanding bench warrant.
The court heard that Tyrone James, general secretary of the NDP, is responsible for the party’s three-storey headquarters at Murray’s Road.
James secured the building around 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 9 and left for the day.
He received information the following day, and, as a result, went to Democrat House around 7:10 a.m.
On arrival, James noticed that some Hairoun crates were missing.
James also received a video of the defendant leaving the building with the crates.
The matter was reported to the police who arrested the defendant and charged him with theft of two Hairoun crates, one pack of exercise books, a package of food, one bag containing clothes, one 5-gallon bucket of paint, the property of the NDP.
Burnett noted that James had appeared before the court during the arraignment on Nov. 14 and had said that he was leaving it to the court to decide on the appropriate sentence.
John had told the court that he had dropped out of Emmanuel High School Mesopotamia because of poverty.
what an injustice by this magistrate , if you want to better and help crime problem in society , this is not how you do it sir………….spare the rod , spoil the child .
yes …if the offender cross the line he can pay a price in the future but he should also face some form of immediate punishment , Why not some form of community service punishments which may help to deter these youngsters . put them to work !!!!
the courts continue to ail these offenders because they know they will be given 2nd 3rd and 4th chances .
He will reoffend in no time because of “poverty.”
This young man is one you may considered ” a lost soul”, but he is young and can be rehabilitated. If the Social Services can help him, he may be saved. He dropped out of a secondary school because of poverty. That should not have happened, and that should not be the end of his world. It seems that he may not be of high intelligence, because he did not think of working, doing odd jobs to maintain himself. Don’t people in SVG observe these young people and lend a hand to help them? He is going down the wrong road, and in this way he may lose his life. This is an SOS call to upstanding citizens to open their eyes and see how they can help these indigent people.