By CHATULA KAMPO –

A TWELVE-YEAR-OLD boy has appeared in the Ndola magistrate’s court for breaking into a house and stealing goods valued at K4,250.
The boy, who is jointly charged with two other juveniles aged 13 and 18, was yesterday found with a case to answer and put on his defence.
Ndola Magistrate Chitundu Chongo found the three, all of Nkwazi Township in Ndola, with a case to answer for housebreaking and theft.
The three are on December 13, last year in Ndola, alleged to have broken into a house in Kansenshi residential area and stole a television set, a home theatre, three DVD players and a fan all valued at K4, 250.
Three witnesses testified in the case.
Nyalunga Simbeye, 20, a business executive of Nkwazi Township told the court that the three boys approached him on December 13, 2013 and told him that they were selling household goods.
He told the court that he refused to buy the goods because he did not know where they were coming from.
Florence Musukwa, the complainant in this case, told the court that on the material day, she went out of the house and when she went back, she found windows in her living room broken and some of the goods stolen. She later reported the case to Hillcrest Police Post.
A docket of breaking and theft was opened at Kansenshi Police Station.
Another witness, Jameson Chisanga, a police officer at Kansenshi Police Station, told the court that the juvenile offenders were found selling the stolen items in Nkwazi Township.
He told the court that he apprehended the boys and took them to Kansenshi Police Station with the stolen items which they had attempted to sell to members of the public.
“The three juvenile offenders when interviewed in connection with the subject offence and they gave a free and voluntary reply denying the charge.
“I later made up my mind and arrested them for breaking and theft,” Mr Chisanga said.
Magistrate Chongo, after hearing from the testimonies from the three witnesses, found the offenders with a case to answer and put them on defence.
She adjourned the case to March 4, this year for defence and extended police bond for the two boys aged 13 and 18.
The 12-year-old boy is remanded in custody.