Recent statements by new Chief Justice Marston Gibson about predial larceny in Barbados, have been described as “heartening” by James Paul, chief executive officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society.
The Chief Justice said recently that when a predial larceny offender was given a light sentence, “the question must arise whether we are truly satisfying the statute in giving a sentence commensurate with the offence”.
“When a predial larceny offender, indeed, any criminal offender obtains a ‘slap on the wrist’, what prevents that criminal, freed in a non-custodial sentence, from seeking reprisals against the citizen(s) who gave the police the information which resulted in his capture?”
Paul said he hoped that the expressions of the Chief Justice could “be translated down to those who hear these matters in courts so that we don’t have the situation where people just think that there is a free for all out there on the farms and they can do as they please”.
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