Seven years for robbery

A 23-YEAR-OLD man was jailed seven years for robbing a man of his wallet and mobile phone valued at K600.
Sialle Morgan, from Baiwara, Ihu in Gulf, was sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to one count of armed robbery.
A period of two years and 10 months was deducted for the time he spent in remand awaiting completion of the case.
Pursuant to (19) of criminal code, a further suspension of two years and two months was ordered.
Morgan will serve one year at the Bomana Correctional Institution and placed on good behaviour bond for a year.
National Court Judge Panuel Mogish told Morgan that maximum prescribed penalty for a simple robbery was a term of imprisonment not exceeding 14 years.
“If a person commits the offence armed with dangerous or offensive weapons or instruments or is in company of one or more other persons and wounds or uses any other violence to any person, he is liable to be sentenced to death” he added.
The lawyer for the State agreed that this was not the worst type of street robbery and submitted a term of imprisonment between seven and 10 years.
Judge Mogish also considered mitigating factors – Morgan pleaded guilty and expressed remorse, did not have any prior convictions and the weapon was recovered at the scene of the crime.
The aggravating factors were that the offence was prevalent, committed almost daily and the prisoner was in company with other persons.
On June 16, 2017 at around 5am at the Kaugere bus stop, Morgan with his accomplices saw the man (victim) and went after him.
They called out to him to stop. Morgan walked up to him and pointed a pistol at him and grabbed hold of his shirt.
Morgan then assaulted the man, hitting him with the pistol butt on his right eye.
Then one of his accomplices came from behind and cut the victim’s ear with a knife in an attempt to stab him.
While the victim was struggling to break free, the third accomplice came and searched the victim’s pockets and removed his phone with the wallet containing a BSP bank card.