A robbery accused on remand had his trial date brought forward after he pleaded with Magistrate Ann McLennan to give him an earlier trial date when the complainant in the case failed to appear in court.
In making his case for an early hearing on Wednesday, Marlon De Freitas said it was the fourth time he had been taken to court and the case had not been heard.
He made his plea after the magistrate had put down the case for a June 25 trial in the Christiansburg Magistrate’s Court when a probation report on De Freitas was also due.
However, De Freitas told the court that he had been on remand for some time and had not been able to provide for his children as a result. When the magistrate asked who is taking care of his children, De Freitas said their mother and his mother. He then said that he was having a hard time in prison “because every day is a fight… I cyan guh wid de people in there, my worship.”
When the court asked him how he came to be remanded in the first place, De Freitas said that he and some friends were going to going to Buck Town and they found a driver’s licence in a wallet on the road. He said that despite his friends telling him to get rid of the licence, he kept it and he was later held with the document when police raided a shop where they had stopped. He said the police took the licence and after investigations informed him that there had been an armed robbery two days prior during which it was taken. As a result, he was charged and locked-up.
He thanked the magistrate when she announced that the case would be heard on June 12.
