Some days you just can’t get anything right.  For one soldier, that included deciding where to be tried and what to plead.

On 1 February 2010 a private in the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment absconded from his base without a pass.  This and associated matters resulted in thirteen charges of “acting in a manner unbecoming of an officer”.

The soldier could elect to be tried summarily by his commanding officer, where he would have faced a maximum penalty of 42 days imprisonment.  On his first appearance before Judge Advocate Roach he pleaded not guilty and elected to face a Court Martial.  Before the Court Martial he changed his plea to guilty.  He was sentenced to 120 days imprisonment.

Ramanan v Ali (2010), Trinidad Express, 23 August 2010.