A young man who was sentenced to three years in prison for breaking into a school twice, was told by the judge to find an obeah man to remove the spell of stealing that is on him if someone had cast a spell on him.

Etion Silburn, 20, of an St Andrew address was sentenced by Judge Pusey in court on Friday, after he pleaded guilty to two counts of simple larceny.

The court heard that on April 10, Silburn broke into the Lawrence Tavern Primary School in St Andrew and stole a laptop and cash. Six days later, he returned to the school and stole a knapsack, a screwdriver and a knife, all valued at $3,500, but was later held.

Before the sentencing was passed his lawyer, Kerry-Ann Duhaney told the court: “ He has a challenge with other people’s things and can’t keep his hands to himself.” The magistrate then asked Silburn how many times he had got in trouble for stealing, and he said about four.

“You don’t like it out here in the atmosphere,” Judge Pusey told Silburn. “Why you don’t stop thief people things?

“But as often as you do I am here,” she added. Judge Pusey told Silburn that she knows that he was fully in his right mind, as the report from the psychiatrist had indicated that he was mentally fit.

She then told him that what he did could be compared to sacrilege. “If dem obeah yuh and duh yuh suh, go back and mek dem tek off de spell,” she told him before sentencing him to three years on both counts. However, the sentences are to run concurrently.