One of the recaptured prison escapees Frank Firimolea has on Monday confessed to a robbery offense laid against him.
Firimolea entered his guilty plea on Monday afternoon before Principal Magistrate Felix Hollison.
This came after police recaptured Firimolea and another prison escapee Dilo Faiga in a RAV4 vehicle along the Burnscreek main road in East Honiara on Saturday.
They were allegedly on their way to the Burnscreek main road to visit relatives when they were confronted by the police.
Another convicted prison escapee Olo was the first to be recaptured in the early hours of 7 January 2020 at the LDA area, Betikama in East Honiara.
The trio escaped from the Correctional Facility at Rove on 15 December 2019.
Now that he was re-arrested and put back in the correctional facility at Rove, Firimolea was brought to the Honiara Magistrates’ Court yesterday afternoon.
This was to answer to the armed robbery charge against him on which he confessed to.
He is jointly charged with Eddie Sanau in this armed robbery charge that happened in the early hours of 28 April last year at a bakery in East Honiara.
The prosecution alleged seven men including the two accused robbed more than $50,000 from the bakery.
They were armed with knives and attacked the owner of the bakery.
The owner of the bakery sustained injuries as a result of the incident.
Sanau had already pleaded guilty to this offense and will be sentenced on March 2.
Sentencing submissions and mitigation on his matter were also made yesterday before Mr Hollison.
Firimolea will appear in court again on February 24.
This is for the sentencing submissions and mitigation on the armed robbery charge and for the mention of another charge of office break-in.
This alleged incident happened on 22 October 2018 at the Honiara City Council (HCC) office.
Firimolea allegedly escaped but was later arrested after fingerprint tests were carried out.
Apart from this break-in charge, Firimolea is also facing charges of store break-in and resisting police arrest.
This is in relation to an allegation on 28 April last year, the same day he and Sanau robbed the bakery.
He allegedly broke into a shop at the Guadalcanal Plains Palm Oil Limited (GPPOL 2) in East Guadalcanal and stole some cash and a carton of cigarettes.
He was previously jointly charged with three other young men.
The three men were however given immunity by the prosecution and may possibly turn prosecution witness.
