Juju thief stuns court

A 23-YEAR-OLD Bulawayo man who relieved himself in four houses that he broke into in a 12-day housebreaking spree and stole a vehicle and property worth more than $5 000, was yesterday sentenced to nine years in prison.

Taurai Jirongo of Nketa suburb pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful entry and five counts of theft before magistrate Mr Joseph Mabeza.

Jirongo told the court that an escape detection by house owners.

He said he chewed some of the and defaecated just after breaking into a house to make sure the owners did not wake up no matter how much noise he made.

Stunned people in the gallery listened as he explained how he would again relieve himself in a house after stealing so that his victims would not be able to trace him.

Mr Mabeza convicted him of the nine counts of unlawful entry and theft and sentenced him to an effective six years after suspending three years on condition Jirongo is not within the next five years convicted of housebreaking and theft.

Jirongo pleaded for a lighter sentence saying that peer pressure drove him to commit the crimes.

“I stole once with my friend and after that I committed the crimes alone. If you pardon me, I will never touch any one’s property again,” he said.

Prosecuting, Mr Tinashe Dzipe said Jirongo committed the crimes between July 18 and 30 this year.

“On the night of July 18 in West Somerton, Jirongo stole from Mr Samora Masimpe Mwinde a 55 inch liquid crystal display (LCD) television set worth $700 and food from his kitchen. The TV was recovered on August 4 from Mr Decent Sibanda of Nketa who had bought it,” he said.

“He stole a Samsung J5 prime cellphone, Intel cellphone