East London | Saturday
CONVICTED bird killer Francina Minnie will spend the weekend behind bars after she was re-arrested on Friday for failing to report for community service at the East London aquarium last month.
The teenager was the only person convicted after the gruesome killing of nine penguins, two pelicans and two gannets at the aquarium in May last year.
The court sentenced her to two years’ correctional supervision and 384 hours of community service to be spent cleaning the aquarium pools.
Correctional Services representative Hein van Eyk said Minnie was being held at East London Prison while community correctional services conducted a 72-hour investigation into her failure to report for duty.
Minnie is meant to work four hours a week at the aquarium and make monthly visits to community correctional services, which she also failed to do last month.
She was arrested in West Bank after authorities had first looked for her at a farm where she had reported a change of address in February.
The warrant was issued on Thursday in order for correctional services to investigate whether Minnie had any reason why she could not do the community service.
”On Monday she will either be referred to the court or be released depending on the outcome of the investigation,” said Van Eyk.
He said the court would decide an alternative sentence, which could be imprisonment, but that this would be up to the court to decide.
Aquarium director Willie Maritz confirmed that Minnie had not shown up at the aquarium for a month.
”I phoned correctional services a couple times to tell them that she was not coming and I’m happy that they didn’t just leave it,” he said.
”It is a punishment and we haven’t forgotten about what happened.”
Last August Minnie pleaded guilty to malicious damage to property and contravening the Animal Protection Act and was sentenced on September 25.
Three other people were questioned in connection with the slaughter but Minnie was the only person convicted in terms of the crime.
Her two-year sentence further included house arrest which prohibited her from leaving home between 6pm and 6am. An additional six months’ jail was also wholly suspended on condition that she was not convicted again of malicious damage to property. – Sapa