Convicted woman apologises for stealing gun

Natalie Delores Clarke stole a loaded firearm from the vehicle of a licensed gun holder with whom she had been travelling on May 19, last year.

The disclosure from Crown Counsel Romario Straker as he outlined just how the Stewart Hill St John resident came in possession of the .22 pistol and ten rounds of ammunition that day.

The prosecutor said that licensed gun holder Vincent Alleyne met Clarke three weeks prior to the incident. They struck up a friendship and he would transport her to different locations at her request.

After getting one such request he placed his gun under his driver’s seat, picked Clarke up at her residence and drove to Six Roads. They then moved on to Brereton, followed by The Ivy where they picked up two people and travelled to Bridgetown.

The prosecutor said Alleyne made a check around 3 p.m. that day for the weapon and it was still in the same location.

They travelled to St Peter. They left and made a stop at a fast food establishment at Westmorland and drove to University Hill where Clarke gave Alleyne $30 for gas.

Later that day Alleyne dropped off everyone at the respective locations and went home where he discovered that the gun was missing.

Straker told Justice Randall Worrell that Alleyne contacted Clarke about the development and she volunteered to accompany him to the police station to make a report.

However lawmen, according to the prosecutor, during their probe began to question Clarke as a suspect and when confronted she said “I ain’t take up no firearm.”

She would later direct police to where she had hidden the weapon for which Alleyne had renewed the licence in January that same year.

Straker said during the investigations Clarke reportedly also told a police officer, “I got something to tell you . . . I really take up the gun and hide it in some bushes up by me. My sister and my mother does treat me bad. I took up the gun to kill myself.”

She apologised today for her actions before the No. 2 Supreme Court.

“I would like to apologise to the court of Barbados and I would also like to ask for some leniency. I have since apologized to my parents,” said Clarke who revealed that she was the mother of a 13-year-old girl in secondary school and was currently employed.

The convicted woman will reappear before the No. 2 Supreme Court on June 10 when her attorneys Michael Lashley Q.C., and Simon Clarke as well as the prosecutor will make submissions on sentencing.

She remains on bail in the meantime.