The Lusaka Magistrate court has sent a 16 year old juvenile to Katombola Reformatory School for theft and drug addiction.

Magistrate Mwaka Mikalile says institutionalisation is the best option for the boy because he has failed to fight the ‘demons’ that kept pushing him to abuse drugs.

And a 17 year old girl of Msisi compound has admitted in the Lusaka Magistrate court that she broke into a house and stole a glass table valued at K1,000.

Particulars of the offence are that the 16 year old boy of Avondale, Lusaka, on July 3, 2018, did steal a Tecno phone from Levy Mwanawasa Hospital nursing bay valued at K1,500, the property of Chisela Kelvin.

The juvenile had earlier admitted that he stole the phone and sold it.

And when the matter came up for facts before magistrate Mwaka Mikalile, Thursday, the court learnt that the juvenile was the third time offender.

He admitted that, he first appeared in court for drugs, then for stealing a laptop and finally, stealing a phone.

“I have appeared three times.The first time I was caught with drugs, Marijuana last year. [The second time] was for stealing a laptop in April this year. This is my third time,” he said after being questioned by magistrate Mikalile.

And in the recent theft case, the boy was seen stealing a Tecno phone on Levy Mwanawasa’s CCTV footage.

“On July 3, 2018, around 22 hours, the complainant left the phone on nursing bay at Levy Mwanawasa hospital. When he went back to the nursing bay, he found his phone had been stolen. He went to the security guides to report what had happened. On July 4, the complainant went to check the footage on CCTV at the hospital where the juvenile offender was shown stealing the phone. The juvenile had no lawful justification for what he did,” read the facts of the matter.

And Social Welfare Department Probation Officer Lindiwe Tatakulu Milambo reported that the juvenile’s mother died when he was a month old.

She explained that the juvenile was raised by his grandmother and while under her care, the juvenile started stealing and smoking drugs before he finally started living with his father in Avondale.

“Particulars of the report as per record; family background is that the parents of the juvenile did not marry. They had him when they were young. The juveniles mother died when he was about a month. He was raised by his grandmother until he was about seven years old. Then he he lived with his father and uncle in their family house. Both his father and his uncle are not married. While he lived under the care of his grandmother, the juvenile would steal from the house. He even started doing drugs with other older boys who were his friends,” she said.

The officer disclosed that after the juvenile failed his grade nine exams, he stopped going to school.

She said the boy was asking for forgiveness from the court as well as his family for committing another offence in less than a year.

“The juvenile lived with his father and uncle in three roomed house in Avondale and they manage to eat four meals per day.The juvenile wrote his grade nine in 2017 but failed and has never gone back to school. Health condition; he is in good health. The juvenile is asking for forgiveness for the court as well as his family for committing another offence in less than a year. He said he has realised that he commits those offences due to bad company of friends,” she said.

She recommended that the juvenile be sent to Katombola Reformatory School so that he could reflect on his life and also continue with his education.

Despite the juvenile asking for forgiveness, Magistrate Mikalile upheld the recommendation of the probation officer.

She said institutionalisation was the best option for the boy because he had failed to fight the ‘demons’ that kept pushing him to abuse drugs.

Meanwhile, a 17 year old girl of Msisi compound admitted that she broke into a house and stole a glass table valued at K1,000.

Particulars of the offence are that the juvenile on July 5, 2018 in Lusaka, with intent to steal did break and enter into the dwelling house of Theresa Ngalamika and did steal one glass table and K1,400 cash all together valued K2,400.

And when the matter came up before magistrate Mikalile, the juvenile admitted breaking into the house and stealing the table but denied getting any money.

“I just got the table but the owner got it [back]. I entered the [complainant’s] house around 14 hours while the owner was behind the house. When I entered, I got a small table [and] nothing else. I didn’t get any money because when I was apprehended, they undressed me and searched me,” she said.

However the magistrate entered a plea of not guilty as the accused denied certain facts whereas accepting other facts.