Teenage girl dodges jail in stabbing case
Cayman Islands courts
(CNS): A 17-year-old girl was given a second chance by a Grand Court judge on Friday when he suspended a 15-month jail term in connection with a violent altercation with another woman whom she stabbed last September. The court heard how the teenager, who cannot be named because of a court order, was threatened several times a few days before the incident, in person and via text messages, and then attacked and beaten by the victim shortly before she retaliated by stabbing her in the chest.
As a result of what was described as the teenager’s “horrific background” as well as the significant provocation, the judge opted not to send the young woman to jail.
As prosecuting counsel Garcia Kelly laid out the facts of the case, he also played a video tape of the violent altercation which was caught on CCTV. The incident had begun at the TAYA lounge for young people run by the Crisis Centre, off Eastern Avenue, in the evening of 13 September.
The woman who was stabbed started the altercation when she burst into the lounge, where a group of teens were meeting. She aggressively attacked and beat the teenage girl, who was considerably smaller than the older woman, causing her injuries. But after onlookers pulled the women apart, the older woman left the location.
Other young people at the lounge tried to try to stop the teenager from going after her attacker but they were unable to prevent her from grabbing a kitchen knife and pursuing the woman.
The teenager spotted her assailant sitting on a wall outside the Flow building, where she ran towards the bigger woman and attempted to stab her several times. The woman fought off the girl, who eventually fled after succeeding in landing one blow with the knife. The court heard that the victim had sustained one small stab wound to the chest but had made a full recovery.
But it was the teenage girl’s own story and not just the obvious provocation and serious threats made by the older woman that led the judge to take a lenient approach. A social inquiry report revealed that, despite suffering significant sexual and physical abuse and neglect as child, she had tried hard to improve her own life, taking evening classes to make up for her lost school years as well as securing a job.
“I am going to give you a chance,” he told the teenager as he suspended what would have been a 15-month jail term for two years, as he urged her not to let him or those who have supported her down.
Category: Local News
So what has happened to the woman who started it? Does she get away scott free?
I am curious to know if charges were brought against the complainant. It seems she did some vile things, that resulted in a complete escalation of this situation.
Would a 17 year old boy get away with the same crime? Would he get a “second chance”? (nope, he would be called a thug and locked up in Northward without a second thought)
Did you miss the “significant sexual and physical abuse and neglect” part???????????????????? Who is going to help her? The number of comments speaks for itself. NOBODY CARES about this girl since she was born.
women get away with almost anything nowadays…set a precedence for her to commit more crime…why didnt she get police involved……m
Sounds like this girl has been bullied in one way or another most of her life…I applaud the Judge’s understanding and relative sentencing.
I disagree…however foreign accountants possessing drugs that happen to work for a “favored” financial company with questionable practices well…
Tara Rivers was the driving force behind the first comprehensive National Youth Policy for the Cayman Islands (2000).
How Cayman youth doing, Honorable Tara Rivers?
See, this girl wasn’t even born in 2000, when your Nation Youth Policy was stillborn. How “ significant sexual and physical abuse and neglect” had happened to this girl when there are so many people get paid, including the “Honorable” ones to prevent it? Did she slip through the cracks? Were your churches, community, RCIPS and many others on payroll looking the other way? Who and how is going to help her now? Or this will be the end of it?