Judge orders prankster to take reading lessons

Senior Parish Judge Sanchia Burrell made a 22-year-old man the subject of a probation order, provided that he take numeracy and literacy lessons through the intervention of probation and after-care services.

Alex Harriott was sentenced for creating public mischief by the senior jurist on Wednesday, following his guilty plea in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on June 27. It was shared that on June 9, Harriott attended the Half-Way Tree Police Station to report that he was robbed by men aboard a Toyota Probox while walking along Molynes Road. The court heard that an investigation commenced into Harriott's report, but subsequent information unearthed by the police proved that he was at the Caymanas River in St Catherine.

"Do not do that again, it was very stupid," Burrell told Harriott. The senior jurist noted that the social-enquiry report submitted to the court was "not a bad" one, and highlighted that the probation officers noted that Harriott was not literate. But Harriott said that he has been spending his time in custody reading the Bible.

"You need to read the part of the Bible that says do not bear false witness because that is what you did. I am going to make you the subject of a probation order for two years with focus on your numeracy and literacy. So, you need to see the probation officers every month," Judge Burrell said.