A man accused of attempting to break into Bermuda?s Red Cross office in Paget was conditionally discharged yesterday after Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner heard his heartfelt explanation.

He was initially charged with attempting to break into the office on December 5 and damaging a window in the process. He pleaded guilty to both but asked if he could explain the situation.

Gareth John Hayward, who is 38 and of no fixed abode, told the court that he was at the Red Cross around 10 a.m. on Monday because he was trying to get his membership card for Alcoholics Anonymous. Hayward was released from prison in September after serving a three-year sentence. He told the court he was trying to stay on the straight and narrow but had fallen off the wagon during the weekend. In a drunken haze he turned up at the Red Cross office and tried to find his AA card because he realised that if he did not get help that day he would return to his old ways and his life would spiral out of control.

He explained that prior to his lock up there used to be AA and NA membership cards in one of the back windows. He was trying to retrieve one when a staff member found him and assumed he was trying to steal.

After hearing his explanation Senior Magistrate asked Crown counsel Paula Tyndale what the evidence was of Hayward?s intention to steal. She said there was none and told the court that the Department of Public Prosecutions was willing to give no evidence on the first charge, intent to break and enter, and accept Hayward plea of guilty to damaging the window.

Mr. Warner conditionally discharged and required him to pay $25 for the window he damaged.