A Park Hill man who peeped inside a woman’s house one day after he was released from prison on bail has been jailed for eight months.
Magistrate Kaywana Jacobs handed down the sentence on the man, Lennox Joseph on Monday at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court, one week after he was released from jail.
She said Joseph’s record shows a “pattern of the same behaviour”.
Joseph pleaded guilty to a charge that on April 16, at Park Hill, he entered upon the property of Elsa Defreitas, of Park Hill, to wit her yard, with the intent to intimidate.
Presenting the facts, the prosecutor, Corporal of Police Delando Charles said that about 10:30 p.m. on April 16, Defreitas and her daughter were at home when her daughter received a telephone call informing her that someone was looking through their living room window.
Defreitas and her daughter went to the daughter’s bedroom, which is near the living room.
They peeked outside through a window and saw someone looking through the living room window.
Charles said that the person who had telephoned Defreitas’ daughter went to the house along with someone else.
When they got there, Joseph was still peeping through the window.
The duo approached Joseph who ran, leaving a black plastic bag under the window.
The police were called and the bag was handed over to them.
The police found Joseph’s national ID card and clothing inside the plastic bag.
Joseph gave a caution statement to the police saying, “Me bin go carry a message give Elsa from she son whey dey ah jail and when me see the man an’ dem, me run.”
In mitigation, Joseph told the court that he was released from prison the day before the offence.
He said that Defreitas’ son — who was in prison — had given him a message to take to her.
“If wasn’t for the message, I wouldn’t go there,” Joseph told the court. “I don’t want to go to prison. It is not a nice place.”
Joseph said it was already dark when he went to deliver the message to Defreitas.
He told the court he was on the road smoking a cigarette and saw a vehicle approaching so he ran into Defreitas’ yard to hide.
He said he spent about 15 minutes in the yard relaxing and smoking a cigarette because he was tired.
Joseph further said he saw about three people coming after him and he ran, leaving the bag behind as it was “kind of heavy.”
He said that since he was released from prison, he worked with two individuals but was yet to be paid and was about to start another job on Monday (the day of the court hearing)
The magistrate said that Joseph had a “long history of the same trouble”, noting that in November 2018, he was reprimanded and discharged for the same offence.
The matter was stood down to verify Joseph’s prison status. When the hearing resumed, the court heard that the High Court had granted Joseph bail and he was released on April 15.