Neighbour jailed after setting jeep ablaze
(CNS): A Bodden Town man who has a volatile relationship with his neighbour was sentenced on Friday to eleven months in jail for arson after he set the man’s jeep on fire earlier this year. Fernando Lopez Thompson (45) was also handed a second concurrent 11-month sentence for harassment against the same neighbour following threats he had made on the same day.
Thompson had set fire to a Jeep Wrangler, valued at $2,500 on 3 May and also crashed into a fire truck while trying to drive away from the scene in Miss Kitty Lane.
He was arrested by police moments later. During his interview at the detention centre Thompson complained bitterly about his neighbour and the animosity between them. He refused to have his prints or DNA taken or to cooperate with police, telling them they should instead go and arrest his neighbour for money laundering.
However, the arson and Thompson’s threats were caught on a doorbell video, which showed him cursing and threatening to burn down his neighbour’s house. As a result, he pleaded guilty in June to both arson and intentional harassment.
As she handed down her ruling, Justice Cheryll Richards noted that Thompson was stabbed in the leg several years ago and has other injuries that cause him a great deal of pain. He admitted that he was drunk at the time and had set the jeep alight impulsively because of the latest row with his neighbour. According to the social inquiry report, Thompson had admitted to drinking a great deal since the recent death of his father.
After weighing up all of the aggravating and mitigating factors as well as the circumstances and consequences of the offence, the judge arrived at the eleven-month prison term. She ordered that the time be served in prison as she said there was nothing to indicate that the sentence should be suspended.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
This guy has at least 30 convictions for various serious crimes – mostly related to drug dealing. He has terrorized all the people who live on the same street. It was also reported that after the arson attack on his neighbor that he crashed his car into a fire truck before taking off on in a car chased down through Bodden Town followed by police before crashing again. Yet, somehow, he’s only charged with much lesser infractions. Clearly a deal of some sort was negotiated or the DPP are completely incompetent. Unbelievable.
The people whose Jeep was burnt are fine upstanding Citizens of these islands compared to this low life who made their lives a misery as well as all the residents on Kitty Lane. 11.42 you obviously have no idea.
A sentence of 11 months makes a total mockery of the police/judicial system – absolutely pathetic, no wonder people have no faith in it.
leniency ensures repeat offenders
He threatened every neighbor along the street that he would kill them all
Another pathetic excuse of a sentence by our ridiculous judicial system.
12 months? This is crazy! This guy is a time bomb
I feel for the poor guy. I don’t know the details of the case, but if his neighbors are anything like mine, I understand his frustration and how he could snap, and do something impulsively.
What a sad story.
Yaah. I have bad days too. But strangely enough I dont go around setting my neighbours’ cars on fire.
Please engage brain and THINK before making moronic comments like this.
Adulting is tough for some people.
11months really should be 11 years it’s arson this guy constantly sold drugs Down by launching ramp in Newlands in the evenings he constantly threaten people and was reported numerous times police did absolutely mnothing to this complete menace to society 11 months is a friggin joke !
Except he wasn’t being prosecuted for selling drugs, nor even for other harassment. Just 2 counts that could be considered akin to a single incident. Notice he wasn’t even – as far as is reported – charged for fleeing the scene, etc. Which quite limits the options available to the judge. What was clearly needed was more charges filled by Police & DPP over time, and now in relation to the entirety of this incident. That gives the judge more to work with on the sentencing.
And the sentence should at least have included a restitution order as well. Even if chances of getting it are slim its the principle of the sentence being restorative to the victim not just punitive to the victimiser.
Why excuse the judge? These UK sentencing practices are failing there as well as here. The self-deluded elites do not admit error.