The Senior Resident Magistrate’s court sitting at Lilongwe has convicted and sentenced James Gerald, 18, to 14 years imprisonment for robbing a certain man of K40,000, a cellphone, among others, all valued at K1 million.

The court heard from Prosecutor Sub Inspector Damiano Nyasulu of Lilongwe Police that Gerald committed the offence near the Gateway Mall minibus stage at around 16:00 hours on 1 February 2025.

On the said date the victim and his friend, were walking along a shortcut path road between Agricultural Research and Extension Trust (ARET), and Central Poultry houses, to board a taxi at the said minibus stage going to Area 49.

Suddenly, they met the convict who was with two other colleagues who were all armed with knives.

Then the convict, and his accomplices who are still at large, attacked the victim and robbed him of the items including a Playstation game.

Appearing in court, the convict pleaded guilty to the charge of robbery.

In mitigation he asked for leniency to the court when passing its sentence saying he is a first time offender.

But in his submission, Prosecutor Nyasulu prayed for stiffer custodial sentence citing the manner in which the offence was committed, and that the convict planned to commit the offence.

Passing his sentence, Senior Resident Magistrate Bracious Kondowe, concurred with the state, and said that apart from being serious in nature, robbery cases are rampant in Lilongwe.

Magistrate Kondowe then went on to sentence the convict to 14 years imprisonment with hard labour to serve as a deterrent to other would be offenders.

James Gerald hails from Tsikulamowa Village, Traditional Authority Tsikulamowa in Ntcheu District.