Magistrates' Court to assaulting a tourist.

In a last minute deal Russell Bill Gibbons, 16, admitted he attempted to steal New Yorker Alan Delorey's wallet and assaulted him on November 10 last year.

Court sources have told the Royal Gazette Mr. Delorey was unwilling to return to Bermuda.

A juvenile accomplice has been sent to a residential home for his part in the robbery in which a police prosecutor said Mr. Delorey "put up something of a fight''.

Magistrate Will Francis ordered Gibbons, of Elliott Street, Pembroke, to be sentenced on April 28 after a social inquiry report is presented by probation officers.

He was charged in December with assaulting Mr. Delorey with the intention to commit robbery.

On that day, Gibbons' hearing was delayed for some time while duty counsel Peter Farge discussed with Crown counsel Veronica Daley whether the teen should be indicted.

The original charge had been "fiated'' by the Director of Public Prosecutions to be sent to the Supreme Court, which rankled Mr. Farge.

Gibbons was four months past his 16th birthday when he attacked Mr. Delorey.

He has been freed on $2,000 bail with one surety. Mrs. Daley was the prosecutor.