His skin was itching and he went to wash it off.
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That was Richard DaCosta Jordan’s excuse for being seen stark naked in a restricted area attached to a block of apartments.
Jordan, 61, of Bamboo Road, St Lawrence, Christ Church, was in the Oistins Magistrates’ Court yesterday where he pleaded guilty to the charge that being a reputed thief, he loitered on Anthony Hepburn’s premises on June 9 and there was cause to suspect he was about to commit theft.
He has 46 previous convictions, including loitering, theft and drug possession.
“I went for mangoes and my skin was itching me and I say I would wash it off. I ask the girl and the girl say, ‘Go help yourself’,” he told the court.
“Why didn’t you leave and go back to your house? Why were you in an area you know you shouldn’t be?” Acting Chief Magistrate Deidre McKenna asked.
“I’m sorry,” was Jordan’s response. Prosecutor Sergeant Shane Chase then informed the court that Jordan appeared before Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes on April 19 and was sentenced to six months in jail, suspended for 12 months.
In breach
“Which means,” said Acting Chief Magistrate McKenna, “that having pleaded guilty, you are in breach of the suspended sentence. So
you have to do the six months.”
She told the reputed thief the only mitigating factor was that he did not waste the court’s time.
“It is very inappropriate. If anybody had walked in there and seen you naked it would have been traumatising,” she said.
She then sentenced him to three months for the loitering, which will run consecutively.
Sergeant Chase had earlier told the court the complainant lived in an apartment complex which had a laundry room at the rear. That laundry room had signs saying it was only for staff and guests.
About 9:45 a.m. the complainant was alerted, by the CCTV system, of an intruder. It showed a naked Jordan in the laundry room.
The intrusion was reported to police, who picked up Jordan from St Lawrence Gap. (HLE)