Duo Convicted in Attempt to Escape Police Custody

Sheriff Ceesay and Alieu Jallow were on Tuesday convicted and sentenced by Magistrate Pa Harry Jammeh of the Brikama Magistrates' Court for willful damage to property. They pleaded guilty.

According to the facts narrated by the police prosecutor Sgt 553 Jammeh, it happened on the 1st May 2009 at the Wellingara Police Station while the two accused persons, Sheriff Ceesay and Alieu Jallow, were under custody in Police cell. Sheriff Ceesay the first accused demanded to go to the toilet and he was escorted by a police officer to the toilet. He added that the accused managed to take the iron bar and went with it to the cell, adding that at the cell Alieu Jallow the second accused joined with him to dig a hole inside the cell. He said in that process the duty officer Sgt Conta opened the cell door and saw the hole which the two accused persons had dug.

There he enquired from them and they confessed digging the hole with a view to escaping from custody. He said later the accused persons were cautioned and charged with the offence committed.

After narrating the facts the two accused persons begged the court to show mercy on them by saying that they were family men with responsibility.

They were later convicted and sentenced to a mandatory jail term of one month. They were also ordered to pay D500 each in default to serve two weeks imprisonment.