SEABIRD killer Francina Minnie (17) was sentenced to six months in prison without the option of a fine on Monday for failing to fulfil a community supervision sentence.
Acting community correctional services head Nomalizo Mqingwana said Minnie would start her sentence immediately at East London’s medium security C prison.
The teenager was sentenced to 384 hours of community service in September last year after being found guilty on charges relating to the violent slaughter of nine penguins, two pelicans and two gannets at the East London aquarium.
Minnie was re-arrested in March and remanded in custody after she failed to report for her weekly four-hour stints cleaning aquarium pools and for not reporting her change of address.
Mqingwana, who gave evidence at the trial, said Minnie had violated her house arrest conditions and failed to give a valid reason for missing her community service duties.
The matter was investigated by correctional services before it was referred back to the court.
Minnie represented herself after turning down the offer of legal advice as she did in her first court appearance. When passing judgment in the East London Magistrate’s Court, Magistrate Henk van Houwelingwen said the slaughter of the birds had captured the attention of media around the world.
He said Minnie was also paying the price of covering up for other accomplices.
The teenager was the only person arrested in connection with the crime but at least three other people were questioned in connection with the slaughter.
Commenting on the sentence, aquarium director Willie Maritz echoed the magistrate saying Minnie had been the reason nobody else had been arrested.
”Her family must realise that she was not innocent. She was guilty and she did not co-operate to apprehend the others.”
Maritz said he was happy that the court had upheld the sentence and that aquarium staff would have been more sympathetic if she had helped convict others involved. – Sapa