No mercy for panty thief - Weeping man gets two years’ imprisonment for stealing clothes

Eusebio Cecilio, the 21-year-old Corporate Area man who confessed to stealing more than $245,000 worth of goods, including 10 pairs of women's panties, was yesterday sentenced to two years' imprisonment at hard labour.

Senior Parish Judge Lori-Anne Cole-Montaque scolded Cecilio, noting that he has been convicted on two previous occasions.

"This is very troubling because the average 21-year-old does not know what a court looks like unless they are doing CAPE (Caribbean Advance Proficiency Examination) Law, but you have come to the criminal court multiple times. You have been arrested multiple times and you are now here," the senior jurist stressed.

In a plea mitigation, Cecilio's attorney-at-law begged the judge to impose a short custodial sentence, as the young man is intent on changing his life.

"He is putting himself at the mercy of the court. He wants to be rehabilitated, he wants to find something honest to do so that when he comes out after the matter is resolved, he hopes to move on because he doesn't want to go back to that life," the lawyer submitted. But the senior jurist was not completely swayed by the submissions.

It was shared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court that Cecilio was sentenced in 2018 to six months' imprisonment for simple larceny.

"There is a part of me that feels for you because you are just 21 years old but I can't just look at the age. You have served a term of imprisonment and that was not enough to jolt you into consciousness. You have benefited from a suspended sentence, which was the court showing you leniency," the judge expressed.

It was shared that on August 12, the complainant was making deliveries to a Chinese wholesaler in downtown Kingston when the vehicle was forced open and the items stolen. Cecilio was later found to be in possession of the items which included 10 panties, 60 packs of socks, 77 packs of lotion and body mists and 59 pairs of black jeans pants.

"For you to be properly rehabilitated, from any of the programmes [that] our penal institutions offer, you would have to be there for a long time," Judge Cole-Montaque said.

"And I hope not to see you again. I hope during the time that you are in prison that you would perhaps align yourself to a church in the institutions or enroll in a skills programme and it is a waste of a young man to go to prison but you leave me no other choice," the judge said, as Cecilio's tears flowed while standing in the prisoner's dock.