By Cherisse Sutton
Reporter - SKNVIbes.com
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| Stanley Warde on his way back to prison. |
(Basseterre; St. Kitts): Stanley Warde who was charged with burglary with intent to rape was found guilty of the crime.
"The Jury has found you guilty Mr. Warde, do you have anything to say before your sentencing?" asked His Lordship Francis Belle.
Warde replied "No".
His Lordship then said to Warde: "You have six offences of a similar nature, you have frequently been to court and you haven't said anything on your behalf; this offence is a serious one. Breaking-in is one thing but what aggravates it is that you intended to rape going onto a young lady's bed with a knife, so you would have to go to jail for five years."
Three witnesses testified in the case of 30-year-old Warde of Harris'sVillage ' virtual complainant Delcia Rubaine, Willie Mason and Orlando Hughes, a Police Officer.
According to Rubaine, on July 3, 2005, at around 10:30 p.m. at her home in Saddlers Village she secured all the doors and windows to her home. The home was also occupied by her grandmother, brother, uncle and cousin.
She said she awoke because her nose started bothering her but did not leave the bed; then while she was about to get up she felt a hand grab the back of her neck. She testified and said in court that she was pushed back down on the bed and told not to move and not to make any noise.~~adz:Right~~
"I thought it was my brother Lynel so I said, 'stop play' then when I got up again I saw it wasn't him," she said. "He said don't move and don't make no noise."
She continued by saying that there was a red sheet on the bed which the accused placed over her head. She said that she told him she has asthma which caused him to remove the sheet. He then told her to turn over where she saw Warde coming over the bed on top of her. She pushed him and pulled the brown- handled, silver-blade knife from him which he had in his hand.
"I then shouted, 'Lynel, Stanley in de house' and he ran," said Rubaine.
Willie Mason who is a messenger, was the second person to testify. He also said he saw the accused Stanley Warde in the house at the time of the incident. Mason who is a friend of Lynel's said he was in the front room in the long chair sleeping when he heard Rubaine scream. ~~adz:Right~~
He said he then got up and saw Warde running through the entrance of the house then ran through the kitchen into Lynel's room and out his bedroom door.
Warde who also testified during the trial said that he was an innocent man.
Warde, looking sad and distressed in the prisoners' dock, said, "I been to prison many times and when I do something, I be honest and say is me, when I come to Courts I don't go around giving trouble everybody know my name is Stanley Warde and every time something happens in Saddlers they say is me even if I wasn't there," he said. "Am a innocent man from Saddlers Village and here I am in your court your honour with half my life gone down the drain."
