Woman pepper-sprays man who burgled home

When a Christ Church woman returned home in the wee hours of January 19, 2014 following a 14-hour shift, she discovered that someone was already inside her residence.

As a result Deborah Gall went over to her neighbour’s house to seek his assistance.

The complainant gave evidence today in Supreme Court No. 5a in the case against the man charged with burglarizing her house.

The accused, Dario Arlington Hollingsworth, who is in his late 20s, is facing a nine-member jury and High Court Judge Christopher Birch on the charge that he entered Gall’s home as a trespasser on January 19, 2014 and stole 12 packs of curtains; 12 boxes of cereal; four tins of sausages; six tins of chips; one pack of linseed; one bracelet; two pairs of earrings; three necklaces; a drill; a screw driver set; a hammer; a toothbrush set and two chairs. The items were valued at $12 962. 50.

Gall said when she arrived home around 1:05 a.m. she opened the gates and entered her premises. She immediately became suspicious when she discovered that the screen of one of her windows was on the ground and the said window opened.

“It alarmed me because I did not leave my house in that condition,” she stated.

Through questions by Crown Counsel Joyann Catwell who is prosecuting the case in association with Crown Counsel Keith Robertson, the complainant said on noticing that things were not as she left them she went and called her neighbour and they entered the house.

“The lights were on in the house. Things were scattered,” she recalled adding that they soon realized that the person was in one of the bedrooms.

She stood to the left side of the door of that room with her “pepper spray” in hand which she carries “for protection” while the neighbour stood on the right.

“When the person realized that someone was outside, he rushed out the room,” she disclosed, adding that she sprayed the face of the culprit who she described as “tall and fair-skinned”.

“He pushed the neighbour out the way and bolted out the door,” said the woman who said they gave chase but the man had already cleared the two gates on the property.

They then stood at the top of the gap and looked in the direction of Dayrell’s Road, and saw a “small white car creep out the gap” and drove off bearing registration number MK69.

“The house was completely ransacked, all five rooms. Everything was tossed and scattered.”

Under cross examination by Hollingsworth who is representing himself, Gall stated that she could identify the person who broke into her home if she was to see him again.

Gall however said she did not know the perpetrator from before.

The neighbour that she spoke of who had assisted her that morning is now deceased. The court clerk from the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court, Michelle Bowen, read in the evidence he had given in the case before Magistrate Douglas Frederick.

In it he said he did accompany Gall back to her house when she came knocking on his door after one o’clock that morning. However he did not see the face of the perpetrator as he ran by “so quickly”.