yesterday sentenced in Supreme Court to eight years in prison for breaking into and robbing a Pembroke home and threatening its occupant with a machete.

Wayne Eugene Smith of no fixed address was arrested two days after the September 13 late-night burglary.

He admitted to Police breaking into the home of 56-year-old John Giavarini, robbing him of $230 in cash, threatening to cut his legs off with a machete, stealing a cordless phone, breaking into an outside shed, and kicking in a kitchen door.

He told Police on September 15 he did it because of drugs: "This is my cry for help.'' Chief Justice Austin Ward was told Smith, who had just been released from prison in late July, had strung together a criminal record dating back to 1981.

In his sentencing submission Crown counsel Khamisi N. Tokunbo pointed to the escalating nature of Smith's offences, which began with break and enters in Bermuda and graduated to a string of drug convictions in Texas, for which he received a 25-year sentence in 1990. The Crown was unable to say why Smith was back on the streets so soon.

Mr. Tukunbo asked the court to impose a sentence at the upper end of the scale for robbery, the maximum being ten years. Citizens must be able to feel safe in the sanctity of their homes, he told Mr. Justice Ward.

Smith also pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary; two other counts of stealing by threat, and breaking into Giavarini's workshop, were entered into the court record and remain on file.

Defence counsel Renee Foggo told the court Smith, in his 15-year journey through the criminal justice system, had never received help or counselling for his problems.

She too requested a custodial sentence but told Mr. Justice Ward a long prison sentence was not the answer.

"It's obvious prison is not working, he has been through a revolving door.

What he needs is help and drug counselling,'' and she asked the court to make such a recommendation in its sentencing. Mr. Justice Ward replied what Smith needed could not be delivered by any human agency. "He has to seek God while he may be found.'' In an articulate statement to the court Smith apologised to Mr. Giavarini for his crime and said his long confrontation with the law was a result of his lack of self esteem and not having the love of a mother and father.

"After coming in and out of court when I was a teenager, no one really wanted to know why I was doing what I was doing,'' he told Mr. Justice Ward.

"If I had the answers for the things I did then I probably wouldn't be here today.

"I've come to the point in my life where I have to live a lifestyle like this and I really don't want to be in society,'' he said.