Mental homeless man gets two months in jail for violating the Emergency Order of the PM

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This could be any one of us,

NASSAU| A 50-year-old homeless man, who claimed he was on the streets because he was being chased by six invisible people, was charged on Friday for violating the curfew.

Mark Grant appeared before Magistrate Andrew Forbes charged with violating the curfew after police found him on Ashley Street on Thursday around 11:55 pm.

Prosecutor Lincoln McKenzie told the court that Grant had told officers he was on the streets because he was heading to his home at Potter’s Cay Dock. He said Grant admitted the offence to officers.

However, when given the chance to speak, Grant, who pleaded guilty, told the court he was on the streets because he was being “pursued” by five men and one woman, who were all invisible and could not be seen by police.

Magistrate Forbes, who noted that Grant had previously been convicted of vagrancy, ordered him to spend “the next two months” at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

In a separate case, Fred Paul, 63, was also charged for curfew violation after police found him on Cox Way around 1.05 am on April 30.

According to prosecutor McKenzie, officers on mobile patrol observed a man driving a green Honda.

He said officers stopped the vehicle and questioned the driver, later identified as Mr Paul, who told them he had called the Royal Bahamas Police hotline number 311 but was denied permission to leave his home.

Paul, who pleaded guilty to the charge, said he was already on the road to “drop funds off” to his parents before police denied him.

Magistrate Forbes, who told Paul that he should have waited until the curfew had ended, ordered him to pay $500 or face spending three months in prison.