Man receives an 11-year warning for raping and sodomizing an 8-year-old.
After receiving three consecutive sentences on Friday, a Catherine man who admitted to raping and sodomizing a now eight-year-old girl, the friend’s granddaughter, will only serve just more than 11 years in prison.
Justice Bertram Morrison of the Supreme Court delivered the sentences at the St. Catherine Circuit Court. The 26-year-old defendant, who was accused on a five-count indictment for rape, sexually abusing a minor, buggery, and other offenses, was only punished for three of the charges since the prosecution had no proof for the other two.
The guy, who was brought before the court in 2021, received a sentence of 10 years for buggery, 11 years and 4 months for serious sexual assault, and 11 years and 4 months for rape.
According to the sentencing guidelines used by Supreme Court judges and parish courts, rape and serious sexual assault offenses carry a minimum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum punishment of life in prison if convicted in a Circuit Court.
Given that the aggravating factors—the complainant’s age, the use of violence, and the effect on the young girl—far outweighed any mitigating factors, Justice Morrison, who handed down the sentences, reportedly stated that, in his opinion, the perpetrator was not deserving of the maximum sentence permitted for a guilty plea. Justice Morrison said that the public would be outraged if the criminal received any lighter punishment.
The complainant was transported to the police by her guardian, where she reported an event that happened in 2019, according to the case’s circumstances as presented to the court. She said that sometime in 2019 when she lived with her now-deceased mother and grandfather, she was taken to a store, requiring her to walk two legs of the route for 20 minutes through bushes.
She said that when she was returning from the store, the accused and a second man from the same neighborhood held her up and led her farther into the bushes.
There, the accused bugged her, forced her to have oral sex with him while the other guy looked on, and forced her to have sexual contact with him. The complainant then walked home in tears after the two guys departed. The young girl claims that she immediately told her grandfather about her experience after returning home, but he said nothing. The males were her grandfather’s buddies, she said to the police.
The complainant was later relocated and placed with a guardian where she broke down and shared her ordeal. She was taken to the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) and a report lodged.
Upon arrest and caution the accused told the investigating officer, “Mi do it miss. Mi sorry. Mi want tell you what happen.”
