FREETOWN: For a convicted goat thief in Sierra Leone, honesty was not the best policy. He was sentenced to 20 years after volunteering in court that he’d stolen before.

Alhaji Abu Sesay pleaded guilty to stealing a goat from a farm in the northern town of Makeni and then told the court it wasn’t his first time.

“But the Almighty God was not on my side because had I succeeded, this would have been my second time stealing a goat from that farm,” he said.

Judge Patrick Hamilton praised his honesty but handed down a stiff 20-year jail sentence, partly because of Sesay’s voluntary confession.

Court officials said the sentence was unusually tough and Hamilton had been influenced by Sesay’s admission of a previous theft.

In handing down his sentence, Hamilton said: “You are a plain and frank person but I want you and others involved in this practice of stealing creatures to desist and you will be the example.”

Sierra Leone, rich in diamonds and minerals, is recovering from a 1991-2002 civil war. Poverty, unemployment and disease are widespread.—Reuters