TV damage sends man to prison with hard labour

LUCY PHIRI writes A 32-YEAR-OLD man of Kafue has been sentenced to five years imprisonment for willful unlawful damage of one plasma TV, one wall mirror and one door all valued at K 11,800. Appearing before Kafue magistrate court before magistrate KawamaMwamfuli was Lewis Kaluba of estates C7 accused of breaking properties of Mable Mumba hence charged with malicious damage to property. Facts before court were that, on May 10 around 19:00 hours Mable Mumba was in the house with the children, and accused person went to their house with a view of having his phone charged. Mable refused to have his phone charged that it was late and told him, he would charge it the next day. Around 20:00 hours she heard a stone hit on the roof and after a while Kaluba started beating the door insisting that he wanted to charge his phone. The family got scared and ran away using the back door as Kalubasucceeded in breaking the door, entered the house with a stone and started damaging the property. He threw the stone on the 49-inch plasma TV and wall mirror. The matter was then reported to the police and he was apprehended and put in police custody. Magistrate: Did you damage the said properties? Kaluba: Yes I did Magistrate: Why did you damage the property? Kaluba: I went to the house to charge my phone, so when getting my phone I was insulted. Magistrate: Why did you damage the property?  Kaluba: Because she insulted me Magistrate: Did she allow you to damage the property? Kaluba: No Magistrate: What did you use? Kaluba: I used a stone. Kaluba then pleaded for leniency over the things he damaged saying it wasn’t by his will. “I just wanted my phone to get charged because I use my alarm as a reminder to take my ARVs,” he said. On hearing his mitigation, court jailed him five years imprisonment with hard labour. The Sun