Man who assaulted police after being nabbed in school bathroom jailed

A 43-year-old man who assaulted police in the wee hours of Tuesday morning when he was found in the girls’ bathroom of a St Michael school in a compromising position has been jailed for nine months.

Kevin Albert Orlando Birkett, of Rick’s Road, Thorpes, St James appeared in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court today and pleaded guilty to having apparatus for the misuse of cocaine, loitering on the premises of the St Stephen’s Primary School in Black Rock, St Michael when he was unable to give a satisfactory account of himself and having possession of cocaine within a 100 yards of the school’s premises.

He also admitted that he assaulted and resisted Police Constable Alicia Padmore as she executed her duties.

Station Sergeant Crishna Graham said police responded to a report of someone on the school’s premises around 4:14 a.m. on May 17. On arrival they found Birkett in the girls’ bathroom with only his shirt on. His jeans were thrown over a door and he was observed masturbating.

When police announced their presence he took up a Ziplock bag nearby. When asked, he was unable to give a satisfactory response on why he was there. As police attempted to detain him, he began to struggle resulting in the assault and resisting charges.

During that time he was also observed with his hand clenched and when opened, the drug was discovered. When he was able to get his pants the apparatus was also discovered.

Birkett, who has 36 prior convictions, told Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes, “I is a good boy”.

He also claimed that he was in the habit of being on the school compound.

“I was in the bathroom by myself but I was constipated. I was told by the guard I could use the bathroom,” he said, adding that he was partying at a nearby bar in Black Rock and was to meet a female at the school.

“I was to meet her there. I know it’s hard to believe, but I didn’t know human beings were around me. I was really shock, it was pitch black.I was constipated with four Guinness. You got to be very careful when you using the bathroom,” he said, while admitting to having a cocaine rock.

He was given concurrent nine-month sentences for the charge involving the officer and told to “tek your hands off the police”.

He was convicted, reprimanded and discharged on all the other charges.