By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
A woman and her lover were each fined more than $1,000 because she put her three young children "out on the street", instructing them to go to the man's house in the middle of the night.
When the children went to the man's home as she instructed, he didn't let them in because he wasn't properly dressed.
Kenya Corrine Penn, of Market Street, and Anthony James Robinson, of Martin Street, were each fined $1,500 for the respective roles they played in causing the three children, ages 11, 9 and 6 to be found unattended on Market Street after midnight on Sunday.
Failure to pay the fine would result in a one year custodial sentence, Magistrate Samuel McKinney ordered. He further sentenced the pair to two year's probation each. Breaching probation would result in an additional $1,500 fine or 18 months in prison in default.
According to the evidence, Penn, 43, instructed the three children to go to Robinson's house to wash their school clothes. Penn and the 64-year-old Robinson are romantically involved; he is the father of the six-year-old boy.
When the children did as they were told and got to Robinson's house, the 64-year-old did not let them in because he was "inappropriately dressed", and turned them around.
The three children subsequently went back out to the main Market Street, and there they stayed until half past midnight when a man who knew their mother saw them and took them to the nearest police station.
Prior to being sentenced, Penn and Robinson were both charged with a single count of cruelty to children.
According to the facts, sometime around 12.30am on September 22, Cordero McDonald left his residence to go to his parent's home at Whylly's Close off Market Street. Before he entered that corner, however, he saw the three children who he recognised as from the area.
The children, two boys and a girl, were all sitting up against a building on the western side of Market Street, wearing white sleeveless undershirts and trousers. The children had their uniforms with them.
Mr McDonald turned onto Martin Street and called the children over to him. He said he asked the oldest child why they were outside at such an hour, and the boy told him that his mother, whom Mr McDonald said he knows as "KC", put them "out on the street" along with their clothing. Mr McDonald said he put the children in his vehicle and took them to the Quakoo Street Police Station.
A little over an hour later at 1.50am, officers proceeded to Penn's residence on Taylor Street and arrested her for child cruelty. She was subsequently taken to the Quakoo Street Police Station, and then later taken to the Central Detective Unit (CDU).
Around 12.10pm the following day at CDU, Penn was interviewed under caution and asked a series of questions in connection with the matter. Penn denied the allegations, but told police that she "told the children to pack their school clothes and go and take them to their father to wash."
A little over two hours later, police had Robinson in their custody. Around 2.14pm, he was interviewed by two officers and denied the allegations.
He said he told the children to go back home to their mother and that he would be there shortly. He also said that he did not let the children in when they came from their mother's house because he was "inappropriately dressed".
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