PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):
A TRINIDAD and Tobago court has 'grounded' a schoolboy who faked his own kidnapping and had demanded TT$100,000 (US$16,666) ransom from his parent.
Magistrate Reynold Waldropt, sitting in the Arima court, east of Port of Spain, told Lyndon Gooding that he would be placed on probation for two years and that he would be confined to his home every afternoon to next morning, until February 2006.
But the magistrate rejected a call by the prosecution for Gooding, a third-form student, to be given a stronger punishment that would serve as a deterrent to others.
RANSOM DEMANDED
Gooding was charged with wasteful employment of police time after staging his own abduction on December 5. His mother, Leela Charles, told reporters that a TT$100,000 ransom had been demanded for the safe release of her son and that the "kidnappers" had threatened to cut off his head.
Attorney Evans Welch, read a report from the school's principal describing Gooding as a "well disciplined, punctual" child who "performed well at school".
But the principal said he had also noticed that prior to December 5, Gooding became "very stressed and needed to escape" noting "some people take their own lives".
"His action was really one of immaturity than of bad faith," the unnamed principal said.
NO RECORD
The magistrate said that he took into account Gooding's confession early to the crime and that he was discharging the youth without any conviction recorded against him.
He then ordered that the youth must reside with his mother during the next two years and confined to his house between 5:00 pm and 6:30 am for the next two months.
"You are not to leave unless accompanied by your mother or an adult. In other words, you are grounded," the magistrate, said.
So far this year, more than 60 people have been kidnapped for ransom and the Parliament passed new measures providing for no bail for persons charged with abduction as a means of curbing the problem.
