Juvenile jailed for 2+ years for armed burglary

| 20/12/2019 | 8 Comments
Cayman News Service
Police car outside the rear entrance of the courthouse in George Town

(CNS): A teenager who broke into a family member’s home armed with a gun when he was just 16 years old was sent to prison this week to serve a 28-month sentence. The crown was unable to say whether or not the gun was real but the teenager used it to threaten the victim. However, the man under threat armed himself with a machete and a struggle ensued, so the boy fled empty handed.

But as she sentenced the teenage boy, who cannot be named because of his age, Justice Linda Dobbs said that the offense was very serious. It was compounded by the fact that the victim’s 93-year-old mother was sleeping in an adjacent room when he burst into the home with the firearm, she explained.

The judge noted, however, that the young offender had grown up in an exceptionally dysfunctional family and also has learning difficulties. His mother was said to be a drug addict who could not look after her son, so he was looked after at different times by various family members.

The court heard that the defendant has been using ganja since he was very young and had significant difficulties in school and interacting with other children. Despite interventions in the youngster’s life by social services, there had been little success in turning things around for him, the court noted. Even though he is just 17 years old, he has committed a string of offenses going back to when he was just 12 years old.

His attorney had urged the judge to suspend the sentence, but she refused because of a history in the family of relatives allowing him to stay with them for short periods and then wanting him removed, and an absence of any effective parenting.

Although reluctant to send a young person to jail and aware of his “terrible background” and the impact jail could have, she said that with no community care arrangements or any stability in his life to allow him to serve an alternative sentence, he would remain in custody.

The teenager was remanded around three months ago after breaching bail conditions and he will now serve the remaining 21 months behind bars.


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Category: Courts, Crime

Comments (8)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    This is very sad. Too young to be identified by name and his life is probably over. Why can’t there be more professional help for these kids. We are decades behind and our social problems are growing by the minute.

  2. L.D. says:

    I have no answer- a parent cannot give a child what they don’t have. A woman can usually find a male and the result can be a baby that no want one wants. The parents can only give the child the same life they know. It breaks your heart but that’s what happens over and over. You, I, the church, the Gov., can’t stop it. So sad, such a waste.

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  3. Lorna says:

    It’s all very sad. He too is a victim.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Do the crime … serve the time …

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  5. Anonymous says:

    How long are we willing to accept Caymanian children falling through the cracks? 21 months is way too long and won’t solve anything!

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    • Anon says:

      It will keep him off the streets and protect you and me.

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    • Anonymous says:

      You’re right 5 years would be better and during those five years he should learn a trade in prison. That way he can be productive when he’s out. Otherwise two years later he’s going right back in.

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    • Anonymous says:

      So long as contraception does not feature .

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