Abuser jailed for 4¾ years for child sex abuse
(CNS): Devon Stewart (57), who was convicted last September for gross indecency on a 7-year-old child, received a prison sentence of four years and nine months Thursday from an acting Grand Court judge, who noted that social workers believed the child had been severely traumatized. In a disturbing case, Stewart had been in a position of trust as a friend of the victim’s family when he abused the little girl, threatened to kill her mother if she told anyone what he had done, and was later found to have infected the little girl with an STD.
Stewart, who is from George Town, committed the offence when he was on bail over a similar sex-crime allegation involving a young child. However, he was acquitted in that case as a result of major inconsistencies in evidence.
In this particular case he was charged with one count of gross indecency regarding an incident in September 2016. He was convicted of inserting his finger in the girl’s vagina while they were sitting in a car outside her home after he had collected her from school.
As a very close friend of the family, the girl’s mother had on occasion trusted Stewart to care for the child in her absence. But the mother learned about the abuse when she took the girl to the hospital after she complained of pain in her genitals. When the sexually transmitted disease was discovered, the little girl told the nurse what had happened.
Soon afterwards, Stewart, who was on bail in the other case, was arrested and tested for the STD, which was confirmed. He was then charged and remanded in custody. Despite the damning evidence, he denied the allegations and forced the child to go through the added trauma of having to give evidence about what had happened to her.
During the course of the trial Stewart accused the mother of fabricating the entire story and claimed the child must have become infected touching something in his bathroom, which he said she had used when visiting his home.
Even after conviction, Stewart continued to deny the allegations and during an interview with social workers after the trial he continued to deny he had abused the child. As a result, the judge said he could not consider the potential mitigating factors that Stewart had himself been the victim of sexual abuse by a woman when he was a child and that he had been abandoned by both his parents, as he refused to accept responsibility for his crime, claiming to be the victim of a corrupt system.
Justice Tim Owen based his sentencing ruling on UK cases, as there are no guidelines or specific precedent in Cayman for a case such as this. He considered what he described as a gross abuse of the trust the family placed in him along with the transmission of the sexual infection and the fact he was on bail at the time as aggravating factors, as he handed down the nearly five-year sentence.
The judge said it was impossible to predict how much of a lasting psychological effect the crime was going to have on the young victim, which was clearly compounded by the unpleasant infection. He said that during the trial it was clear the little girl was still psychologically traumatized by the event and he said it was likely to have a lifelong impact on her.
The court is also set to consider if Stewart should be the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention order when he is released from jail. So far, the new tool provided for in legislation to protect the community from sexual predators has only been used in one case.
Who is resisting sexual offender registry and what laws protect predators from publishing their mugshots?
Does someone have a picture of this Devon Stewart? We all need to warm our children since he will be back on the streets before you know it with this pathetic tap on the wrist of a sentence. Post pictures so everyone will know who to hide their children from.
Why isn’t there a charge GBH for the STD?
This is the epitome of evil. So, would my Director of Public Prosecution grant me 15 minutes with this creature, in exchange for saving the public purse whatever it costs to house and feed this pond-scum? Would you like to see legal precedence (albeit on Planet Trump) for letting me go?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2408953/Texas-father-beat-Jesus-Flores-death-raping-5-year-old-daughter-NOT-face-murder-charges.html
This is unacceptable. Why not have legislation similar to the firearm issue? Caught with a gun…10 years, end of story (I support this particular minimum sentencing). Caught molesting a child….15 years, end of story. It needs to be automatic. No arguing by skillful sh*t-heel lawyers either. 15 years is the starting point (yes, even for sext-ting an underage child….I’m looking at you ‘coach’). If the Cayman Islands are not careful, and justice is not delivered through our courts, good & decent parents will take justice into their own hands.
Sentences need to be appropriate for the crime committed. This innocent child is scarred for life, not 4 3/4 years……….
The best, no nonsense comment!
Send him back to where he is originally from.
Lord knows we have our own pedophiles that we can’t send anywhere.That would be one less to worry about. We need to send not only him but any others not from here back after serving their sentence.
It is frightening when you think about the number of incidents taking place on such a small island.
Imagine how many never get caught. Its crazy! Parents keep your children close!
I am sorry for anyone trying to raise small children in these times…so many pitfalls to avoid …it must be so tough. Who do you trust?!
At least they got this one.
Roll out the sexual offender registry legislation.
Go after the “untouchables”.
There is one very specific case out there that clearly illustrates the systemic, cultural failures in these situations.
The ODPP/RCIPS dare not bring that case to Court.
Who you think is complicit in this Mr Millburn if not or so called leaders. Look at the most recent cases and the nationality of those involved and the sentences handed out it is obvious exactly what is going on here. There needs to be a full investigation into this matter and the previous matter including the nationality of these so call police and you will find out exactly what is going on . A proper immigration and hiring policy will stop all of this bullshit that is going on here. We aint going to get diddle squat from a government formed by the very people perpetrating these crimes here on this island.
This sentence is grossly offensive for the victim and family. Cayman needs to start delivering justice this predator will soon be out to wreck others lives. Am totally disgusted.
And if it was my child and I had taking matters into my own hands against this demon the judicial system would have given me life imprisonment, and even if the judge was to take temporary insanity into consideration I still would be getting 10-15 years,the system is a big joke.
Our sentencing system needs a total overhaul by our LA members.Some of what I see being handed out is nothing more than a slap on the wrist and a pat on the head.Lets hope Govt will work on this ASAP.
I have heard so many grown male professionals who speaks about being raped as a child by their female helpers or their mother’s female friends. These grown men brag about this experience with older women. In my view, those female helpers had to be sick to rape these little boys. However, these men are so protective of their children and other children. This experience did not turn any of them into child molesters. It is my opinion that Devon, is only building a story to seek sympathy for his evil act on that poor child. His experience should have placed him in a position to take care of children and protect them instead of bring harm to them. Death sentence should have been handed down to this monster.
You give Michael Jefferson 10 years for a broken gun that did not have his prints or his DNA. But give this demonic man for raping a child and giving her STD ONLY 4 YEARS! Where is the justice for this child? I would have felt better to know that he got the same time as Michael or more, rather than this hand shake, that says to other child molesters, ‘it is ok to rape babies, as you will only get 4 years’.
He is a Caymanian Bro and that was his problem?
Who’s a Caymanian? Michael or Devon? Because Devon isn’t a Caymanian!
The sentencing for abuse of children here is a joke.
The message being sent to any child of abuse is that we don’t consider you important enough to punish persons who carry out this disgusting behaviour harshly.
Four years and nine months???!! A few years ago a father who had abused his own daughter got less than 2 years!
Abuse on a child has lifelong psychological effects that you cannot imagine or measure.
This man is obviously a sexual deviant and should have been given 20 years or more. The punishment has to send a message that we do not tolerate these acts.
Poor excuse about him being abused as a child. There are many who were abused as children who did not go on to abuse others. He is just a sick man.
I hope they are intolerant of child abusers in jail here as they are in some other countries.
My heart goes out to that child, who had to go through not only the abuse but also because he consistently denied it, had to painfully recall details of the abuse to get him convicted. Sick man.
Message for parents, especially single parents, trust no one. Always be on guard, observant and ask questions. Child molesters are usually not strangers but often someone the child knows and trusts……relatives, siblings, cousins, teachers, pastors.
Dearest 7:01pm look no further than who runs our entire Law enforcement arm prison police judges prosecutors lawyers and the very naive parole board Brits and Jamaicans and then look at what exactly is going on in their countries with their broken criminal justice systems one kills them when they become a liability to the political apparatus the other is too sympathetic but loves the economic windfall it produces for them and job security. Yes Cayman it’s bigger than us and we are in over heads now.
I can’t get my head around the leniency of some of our laws here in the Cayman Islands. A convicted pedophile will be given a lesser sentence than say an average Joe who gets caught with a little bit of ganja that is generally for personal consumption. How can that be?
Prison over populated awa? Can’t keep this durgon any longer?
Absolutely correct that he will reoffend and should have been given 15 actual years at least, by which time his urges should have declined with age.
Let us not forget however that sex crimes against children are extremely common here and many go unreported as family members are involved, very often Caymanian.
You and hater need to catch KX607 back a yard star
4:25pm, his behaviour is common place back a yard. You read about this type of behaviour in the press. A leopard never changes his spots. Why is there so much leniency on these people? We need to shame the perpetrator, and stop blaming the victim. Introduce sterilization and castration as part of their sentences.
Am I the only one bemused by these constant claims of rampant sex crimes involving minors on Cayman?
Who are all of these magical commenters who have all of this information on victims (particularly children being abused) and are not reporting these instances to the authorities to be investigated?
Either you are talking out of your ass and are just taking “Marl road gossip” or hearsay as irrefutable fact
or
You are part of the problem in this apparent continuing cycle of “extremely common” unreported abuse of minors
I for one have never seen any child abused on Cayman in that nature and if I had I would have surely report it to the police even if it was my own family
All of these confessional comments claiming widespread pedophilia and sex crimes need to either stop being posted due to the being nothing more than rumors or need to lead to police investigations.
Speak up
Diogenes
Did you ever stop to consider that some of the commenters are speaking from personal experiences.
Clearly you have never been abused and think it is just a simple matter of “speaking up”.
Of course it is always easy for someone who has never been abused to “talk out of his ass” because you have no clue.
Except this person is clearly talking about multiple instances:
“Let us not forget however that sex crimes against children are extremely common here and many go unreported”
key word being “many”
It is our responsibility to ensure that victims know they can speak up and they will be taken seriously because their silence only allows their abusers to potentially abuse others
Diogenes
Question, have you READ the news lately?! These types of issues are running our headlines! I’ve only been alive for 26 years and I’ve honestly read about it far too many time for my little life span. If it doesn’t bother you something is wrong. Years gone this was taboo, never heard of, barely heard of…now it’s daily news!
I am bothered with it, hence my call for a new way to deal with this because clearly the current system is not working for the victims or properly treating the criminals (who need rehabilitation) The current system clearly is also not deterring the crime in the first place.
Clearly I have read the news, and while in our small community there have been high profile cases of abuse. In actuality there are only a handful of these cases per year, (Ideally there would be no cases but we live in the real world not utopia) Every society has persons who abuse children that is just a fact (I know people in Cayman hate facts but facts are facts deal with them). People are generalizing and claiming widespread abuse when it just is not reflected in the actual reported cases and hence it is not justified.
My concern is the general populous taking these cases and turning them from outliers into everyday irrational fears, Should parents be wary? yes. Should parents teach their children what is and is not appropriate or allowable in relation to their bodies? Yes but there is a difference between preparing for the worst and hoping for the best and just claiming widespread abuse without any evidence
Question did you actually read my comments? This is not “daily News” and you are so daft that in a series of comments addressing exaggeration and hyperbole you turn to hyperbole and exaggeration in order to prove an invalid point. You are literally the exact type of person I am talking about and you can’t see that .
And as a sidenote
A lack of reported cases in the past does not mean that these abuses didn’t take place it likely just means that they were never discovered, never reported or covered up or handled by persons involved.
You might only be 26 but clearly you have a future in dramatic writing
Diogenes
First I will start by saying this man is without a doubt unequivocally a monster with no self control and no human decency
There is no numeric sentence that would make the public happy on this kind of crime,
The focus should be on the Cayman Islands lack of rehabilitation rather than the sentence, the sentence means NOTHING if he just spends 4 years in a cell instead of four years in a mandatory rehabilitation program,
and I am not just talking about rehabilitation for sex offenders, look at the recidivism rates for NA and the Caribbean and then look at places like Norway, where people are generally in prison once and then never again (human rights arguments aside)
Putting emotions to the side for a minute the point of throwing someone in jail is multifaceted:
Protecting the public and public interests
Punishing the crime by restricting freedoms (to a degree)
And allowing for the rehabilitation of the individual so that he can potentially reform from these incidents
I don’t particularly like discussing sex offenders in public forums due in part to the conservative argument that homosexuality is similar to pedophilia which is a despicable comparison and the idea that there is only one side to the conversation. The people who just demand castration or the death penalty for these issues are part of the problem, There needs to be an actual approach for these issues that can be used to limit these actions. Another thing I want to point out, all or almost all of the high profile instances of child abuse on this island involve heterosexual men with girls, at least that I am aware of currently.
contrary to what some would have you believe
If we as a society honestly believe that these types of offenders cannot ever be reformed then what is the purpose of ever releasing them?
*insert persons bitter about human rights or the lack of the death penalty*
I for one think if these persons must be released (which they do for ethical and economic reasons) it puts me in the position of supporting serious and intensive rehabilitation and monitoring post release along with a system of checkups post release
Sex offender registries are for persons to fear-monger and gossip they don’t actually keep people safe and from my conversation with someone involved in rehabilitation and treatment at Northward it doesn’t have any positive effect overall
Repeat offenders are another story, but in short if they have no intention of attempting to reform they ought to be kept in custody
Just my thoughts
Diogenes
PREACH!!!!!!!!!!!! A little louder for the people in the back!
4:33pm, the sermon has to reach the politicians, and the judiciary, who are asleep at the wheel. Wake up from your slumber and face reality!
He deserves death by public stoning! In fact all of these monsters and kiddie fiddlers deserve nothing less. Prison is too good for sick bastards who abuse children.
Are we going to cut off the hands of thieves?
And rip out the tongues of blasphemers?
If you want to live in 1066 might I suggest Saudi Arabia
their punishments for crimes are right up your alley
Diogenes
Sorry 1.35pm Diogenes .. rehabilitation for who… this demon is not Caymanian he should have never been allowed to land much less get a work permit. Cayman needs to deal with these with strongest arm of the law. Sick and tired of these S.. H… people from these S.. H… places.
You forgot to add; church members/pastors/preachers/any clergy men, politicians/former or otherwise, policemen, etc. And although a smaller percentage of recorded data, women.
Ahh, and yes, some parents themselves. It’s not always black and white when it comes to sexual abuse, be it on children or adults.
OMG this is disgusting, this bastard only get 4years for what he did to this innocent little girl. He don’t need life sentence, he needs the DEATH PENALTY. Am sorry but if this was my child, I would have hunted this asshole down, tight him up and cut his xxxxxx off.
Cayman News Services, I am curious to know where it states that this garbage “is from George Town”? Was it on the court documents?? Because he is from Jamaica. Are we to assume that no deportation order was issued because he is now married and has a Caymanian family??
Immigration/Government you got to do better than this – he should have never been allowed to land here much less get a job. I hope he was not working with animals at the Arg. Department. In fact he is not fit to work at any job in cayman.
Who the hell are doing background checks on these Demons????? I know the VISA program is not working, as the criminals continue to pour into cayman.
HTF he only get 4 years? We telling all these sick bastards it’s better to molest our children than get involved with drugs right?! Good Lord. What a stupid society we live in. Nothing to protect our children. What the hell do the police do? Do they spend as much time and resources on gathering evidence as they do trying to catch weed smokers and speeders. We are seriously lacking. Our laws have no teeth for these people. Worse we be giving away permits and won’t do proper background checks. We going get exactly what we deserve for our stupidity. If you read this and it sting you, let’s do something about it!
Devon alanzo stewart is not Caymanian he comes from where the rest of the ramble around this place come from that no doubt is what helped him with the first acquittal gtown man my ass he needs to be deported immediately
As I hear said often, “Me is a Caymanian” will probably be said by him.
So he can do this to other children in his home country?! No he needs to rot in jail here for the rest of his life.
He needs to rot in his home country jail, we tax paying honest folks should not have to support him here.
He won’t go to jail in a country where he didn’t do anything wrong yet!!!!!!!
I wouldn’t go to jail in the US if I smuggled drugs into cayman. ffs
He surely isn’t doing the time for his crime, 4+ yrs…shh! I pray that precious little girl will have a normal and happy life and not be permanently damaged by this demon. He should have been given 15 to life.
My basic instinct says that this massive piece of human waste should be sentenced to serve and undergo psychiatric evaluation/therapy for every year that it takes for that little girl to recover mentally from what he has done to her. Very basic studies of child abuse show that children who have been exposed to sexual encounters before puberty have to undergo YEARS of therapy leading into their adult lives before they are able to cope. Some never recover. Some of them (just like the convicted) grow into adults who then carryout the same depraved acts on other children…and the vicious cycle continues. I would love to see this man burn for what he did but who is burning for what was done to him as a child? And what is being done for this little girl and other children in our society who have had these forced/premature sexual experiences? We need to get to the root of the problem and stop sweeping the shame under the rug because all we are doing is continually breeding more and more sex offenders who themselves were deprived of a normal sexual progression in life. Just my two cents worth.
I hope absolutley every effort is made by family, friends and social services, to ensure this little girl has a much better, safer and happier life than the start she’s been given.
The reality is the fact that such sex offenders and child abusers do not change. The death penality casteation or a strong public awareness should exist for the rest of the offenders life to serve as a prevention awareness procedure.
Four years, of which he will serve only 1/2 of the sentence?? Disgusting!
From the sentence he must be Caymanian.
Upset hater he is one of yours where this behavior is very common
So let me get this correct. This sick SOB gets less than 5 years while his innocent young victim faces a ‘life sentence’ for his depraved actions?
There truly is no justice for the innocent!
Is it any wonder that old timers would just take them fishing instead.
4 years for ruining a little innocent child’s life!?! Please let me know the date and time of the protest!
And this is why cayman has more sickos per capita than anywhere in the world.
Imported sick badtards. The same behavioral patterns they display and act out in their own countries, they come here an put on exhibition. Drain our imported swamp now.
This justice system sucks! Should have beat him within an inch of his life when they discovered what he had done to that poor little girl! Evil man!!!!
At the risk of fanning the flames, and I say this with the greatest of sincerity; the sentences we are seeing in Cayman for child sex offences are very representative of the norm in today’s British justice system.
Our judges are limited by the guidelines and examples therein.
Personally, I have long acknowledged a major disparity in the cultural attitudes toward child sex abusers when comparing Cayman to the UK.
(E.g. A good old-fashioned beatdown used to prelude the involvement of the police and courts – that was an expected norm. Some say it was the best deterrent. Of course, such behaviour is now frowned upon and considered inhumane. However, I choose to reserve as an option if, heaven forbid, the need arises.)
I wish that innocent child complete healing and trust the parent(s) exercise better judgment going forward.
– Who
Let’s just throw the justice system out of the window and beat everyone for every crime since it is such a great deterrent
Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps these crimes were still committed back in the days you are so nostalgic for but they were either
a) not reported or talked about due to shame, fear or the mindset of the time
b) not found out because of the way children were raised to be mindlessly obedient to adults in all things
When are we going to stop denying the reality of the situation instead of this “back in the good old days bullshit…”
Child sex abuse is nothing new, and evidently the old ways were no solution
Real paragon of intelligence and common sense you are
Ok, you REALLY don’t like (or get) me, do you?
😉
– Who
The former, though I notice your response as usual dances around the actual points of my comment
Same old Who
Hardly the time or place to engage in silly bickering.
Grow up.
– Who
Exactly! Anyone checking? Deportation order?
This child’s life will forever be changed and the perverted scumbag gets a jail sentence lesss than 5 years and will probably only have to serve 3 to 4 years! There is no justice in that! Every child should have the protection they deserve, Mothers & fathers always be diligent in seeking proper supervision of your children. Even when you don’t suspect that something is / or could happen always be on the look out for possible warning signs. I suggest that every parent go through the “Darkness to Light” training that the Red Cross runs twice a month. It’s a real eye opening awareness for everyone.
At one time it was taboo to discuss this topic or “shameful” to acknowledge if you suspect a family member or family friend of being inappropriate with a minor please believe me when I say expose it, bring it to the light, call the authorities because it’s even more shameful to suspect/know about it and allow a child to endure such a violation. Adults have the obligation to protect children.
This is beyond comprehension and enrages me to the point of recklessness. This mess needs to stop. We have to get on our elected officials to get a handle on all of these bloody perverts. There needs to stiffer penalties to act as a deterrent otherwise there will be no change
This one should be for life…
should have been 14 tears and 9 months. Now we need a law to alert the public by publishing their names in the news paper when these sex criminals are let out of jail.
He destroy the child so Him need nine nights sentence!
Are you kidding me,what is wrong with this judicial system,only 4,1/2 years for ruining such an innocent life,they should have given him at least 14years that way at age 57 now there would be a chance of him dying in prison before his date of release,smfh.
Castration is appropriate.
OMG 4 plus years???That was it…