A TEENAGER has admitted handling goods stolen from a cancer charity’s ransacked premises.
The 16-year-old admitted having two bottles of wine and a hammer which were taken from the Harbour Cancer Support Centre in South Street, Gosport.
Two other youths – aged 13 and 15 – previously pleaded guilty to burglary and criminal damage after they broke into the charity’s base and trashed it last year.
Yesterday, Fareham Youth Court heard the third boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had waited by the Gosport Ferry while his two friends went off.
They returned with bottles of wine and a hammer, before stashing some of the items in the defendant’s bag.
The three boys were later stopped by police in Commercial Road, Portsmouth, and the items were found.
The court heard the third boy had been ‘extremely upset’ when he discovered what his two friends had done, as he had received counselling from the support centre himself in the past.
Rhys Evans, defending, told the court: ‘His father was diagnosed with cancer and is still suffering with that today.
‘As a result [the 16-year-old] has received some counselling from the Harbour Cancer Support Centre.
‘When he found out it was that organisation that was not only burgled but ransacked, he was extremely upset and said he was angry and annoyed at what his then friends had done.’
The 16-year-old was given a referral order by the court.
He was also ordered to pay £40 towards the costs of the case.
As reported in The News, the 16-year-old’s two friends climbed through a first-floor window shortly after midnight on September 14 and set about tearing the place apart.
The pair broke furniture, threw food from the kitchen at the walls, smashed a reinforced glass door and destroyed potted plants, throwing them around the centre.
Workers were forced to close the support centre for several days.