Judge jails woman 'who does not want to learn from past mistakes'

A woman, Lorita Pace, was told by the criminal court that she doesn’t seem to want to learn from her past mistakes as it handed her a prison sentence of three years and six months for breaching her probation conditions. 

Back in 2015, Pace was accused of stealing a handbag, sunglasses, a mobile phone, money, credit cards, keys and other documents from an elderly person and was sentenced to a three-year probation order. 

In 2012, the accused had also been sentenced to six months imprisonment suspended for one year for unrelated crimes.

Pace, however, had breached her probation conditions when due to a drug problem, the court had recommended a rehabilitation programme.

Pace had refused to continue showing up for treatment at the Dual Diagnosis Unit at Mount Carmel Hospital and had stopped any form of contact with Sedqa. 

Pace had also stopped communicating with her probation officer. 

Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti said that it was clear that the accused was not willing to learn from the past and seek to reform herself.

“This court does not give up on anyone, but it also has a responsibility to see that resources—that naturally are finite—for people like the accused are available to people who truly want to beat a drug habit. Otherwise, the accused would just be taking someone’s place, someone who could truly benefit from that resource,” the court said, adding that the accused had clearly not matured over time and that imprisonment could help her decide on her future. 

The accused was sentenced to three years and six months in prison.

Inspector Kylie Borg prosecuted.