WESTERN BUREAU:
FRENCH NATIONAL Valerie Martinez, who was found begging for alms on the streets of Montego Bay last week, was sentenced yesterday to two months at hard labour in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's court for illegally entering the island.
She was also ordered deported to France and Resident Magistrate for St. James Valrie Stephens ruled that the French embassy pay her travel expenses.
Martinez briefly protested the sentence. "You can't do this," she said. "I am poor."
The police charged Martinez with illegal entry after she failed to present valid documents to show the date she arrived in Jamaica.
She was taken into custody on December 20 after she was seen begging for money near the Transport Centre on Barnett Street in Montego Bay. She told the police that she left France seven years ago and had been living in Honduras. She said recently she got a plane ride to Jamaica and she took it.
When Martinez first appeared in court on Monday, December 23, she pleaded not guilty and since she has presented no documents to prove her identity, Resident Magistrate Stephens ruled that the police should get in touch with the French embassy to determine her true identity.
When she appeared in court on Friday, December 27, Martinez changed her plea to guilty and the police said that the embassy had confirmed that Martinez was a French national.
Yesterday, Martinez told the court that she came to the island by boat, contradicting the earlier story that she arrived here from Honduras by air. She however refused to give the exact date of her arrival.
