Teen gets one
more chance

ONE LAST chance.

That, said Magistrate Christopher Birch, was what he was giving troubled teenager Gabrielle Shanika Roberts.

Roberts, 16, of Park Road, Bush Hall, St Michael, was back in the Bridgetown Traffic Court last Friday after Magistrate Birch had remanded her to HMP Dodds for breaching her probation.

That was not her first time on remand.

She was initially remanded after she appeared in court charged with assaulting her mother, Victorene Wilkinson, on May 17.

She was again remanded, a month later, when she breached the conditions of her bail.

"This is your fifth appearance over the past six months," Magistrate Birch said.

"You've beaten your mother; you've breached the terms of your bail; you've breached your probation; you got yourself in a nice little tangle that resulted in someone else being charged and your school has relieved itself of you," Magistrate Birch further told her.

"And all of this before your 17th birthday."

In addition, said the magistrate, Roberts had not even lasted six months on her probation.

"But I will take one last chance on you even though you really would have exhausted all possibilities," the magistrate said.

He imposed a six-month sentence but suspended it for two years.

This, the magistrate told Roberts, was her chance to grow up and become an adult.

Last month, the court heard that Roberts failed to report to the Probation Department as ordered, after she had been placed on probation.

The court also heard that Roberts left home on October 21, never showed up for work, and was not seen again until October 23.