Lengthy jail term for robber who left his prints on a can of baked beans

05 Aug 2020 | Kwanele Mketeni

Stock image of a can of baked beans

A Lesotho national has been sentenced to an effective 44-years imprisonment after his fingerprints left on a TV set and a can of baked beans, positively linked him to his crimes in Sterkspruit.

The 35-year-old Pule Jankie was convicted of housebreaking and robbery with aggravating circumstances for offences committed around Sterkspruit in 2016.

On the 8th of April 2016, Jankie and an accomplice broke into a house of a 57-year-old woman before assaulting her with a firearm.

Both suspects had their faces covered in pantyhose and ransacked the victim's house before fleeing with goods valued at R3 600.

The police later lifted fingerprints found on a television set that the suspects had touched.

On 22 April 2016, the two masked men struck again at a home of a 51-year-old woman at Tienbank Top, also in the district of Sterkspruit.

Using a hammer, they forced the house door open and assaulted the victim.

They demanded money and made off with R2800 cash, bedding and a cell phone.

They tied the victim’s hands and legs and gagged her mouth using her church uniform ties. Jankie and his unknown accomplice took a tin of baked beans from the fridge and ate before leaving it at the scene. The police lifted fingerprints found from the empty tin of baked beans.

Jankie was only charged in 2017 when he was arrested for another offence and his fingerprints were linked to those lifted from the two robbery scenes.

He was sentenced to eight years imprisonment for each of two counts of housebreaking with intent to rob and 17-years imprisonment for each of two counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances.

The court ordered that three years of each of the eight-year sentences run concurrently with each of the17-year sentences.

Jankie, therefore, will serve an effective 44-years in jail.