Would-be thief caught halfway through hospital window

- severely beaten; suffers broken ribs, foot and arm

Thirty-two year-old Claude Howard of Skeldon, a known felon, travelled over 60 miles and decided to rob the New Amsterdam Hospital, it turned out to be the wrong place he picked on to commit his misdemeanour.

Howard was caught in the act, badly beaten (suffering broken ribs, left foot and arm) and ended up a patient at the same institution.
The man was in severe pain when he appeared in the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court yesterday, before Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo, charged with attempting to commit a felony, and pleaded guilty.
The case for the prosecution as presented by Inspector Satrohan Dayaram was that on Monday July 26, around 20:00 hrs, Campbell was caught in the process of entering the Physiotherapy Department of the New Amsterdam Hospital.
He had removed three louvre panes and his body was halfway through the window when he was seen by a security guard.
An alarm was raised and he was nabbed as he tried to escape and subsequently given a sound beating.
When he was discharged, Howard was taken into police custody and later charged.
When he appeared in court yesterday, the accused told the Magistrate that he did not steal anything, “Your worship”, he mumbled in between bouts of anguish and pain, “I was outside and dem other boys been inside the building and I try fuh run and get ketch and dem hospital porter beat meh up bad”. “Dem break three ah meh ribs, meh hand and foot, den dem police lock meh up, since Tuesday,” he continued.
The Magistrate then remanded Howard to prison until Monday when he would be sentenced.
Kaieteur News was reliably informed that investigations are ongoing into the circumstances of how the man got his injuries and to see if anyone is culpable, so as to lay charges.

Tuesday, August 7, 2010