The last thing Mark Noel expected to find when he returned home from the interior was another man in his bed.
However, he got much more than he bargained for when he found a vagrant, Sherwin McDonald, “naked in bed wrap up tight in a sheet with a dog.” McDonald, 24, of no fixed place of abode, was sentenced by acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson to three years imprisonment on Thursday after pleading guilty to breaking and entering Noel’s house and stealing a quantity of clothing and food.
He admitted that between December 14, 2009 and January 9, 2010 he broke and entered Noel’s house and stole a quantity of clothing, valued $34,000, a computer modem valued $20,000 and a quantity of foodstuff valued $15,000.
McDonald told the court that he entered the house through a front window. He admitted that he used two tins of peas and beans, a tin of tomato sauce, split peas, approximately half pint of brown rice, a packet of macaroni and a box of macaroni, some salt and about two pounds of sugar and a new toothbrush.
Noel explained that he had received a barrel of food and clothing from the US and had taken some of the items to Ituni to distribute. He noted that he has a mining concession in the area. He said when he returned home he saw the missing louvres in his bottom flat and upon investigating found the defendant in his bedroom with the dog.
Noel told the court that McDonald claimed he took possession of the property since Noel was not there.