Child rapist awaits fate
(CNS): A man convicted of raping his step-daughter when she was around eleven years old, who has been waiting 16 months to be sentenced for his crimes, finally appeared before a judge for a sentencing hearing Thursday but will have to wait one more day to find out exactly how long he will serve behind bars. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty of raping and indecently assaulting the child over a period of more than two years, beginning around 2011.
After hearing comprehensive but conflicting submissions about the case from the crown and defence attorneys, Justice Roger Chapple said he would deliver his decision in the case on Friday. The lawyers disagreed on a number of issues — the level of severity, harm caused, culpability and seriousness of his crimes — as they outlined for the court the details of the conviction and his current circumstances.
Rape carries a maximum term of life in prison and the judge said he needed some time to consider the submissions before revealing how long the 37-year-old man will serve.
The court heard that the convicted man is still married to the Caymanian mother of the child victim, who is now 17 years old. He now has four children of his own with his wife, aged between two and ten years old, and his attorney said that she had stood by his client, despite the conviction and his imprisonment. The lawyer said she and the children were continuing to visit him in jail on a weekly basis but the family was suffering significantly as a result of his incarceration. The family is going without food and is without power in the home, having lost the breadwinner, he told the court.
The defence attorney argued that his client, who is originally from St Lucia, and who has persistently denied the allegations, has a strong belief in family and is more concerned about their suffering than his own difficulties in jail. The lawyer pleaded with the judge not to impose a very long sentence because, he said, that would not only kill any remaining ambition his client had to use the time in jail to study, but a lengthy term might also sever the strong connections he still has with his family.
However, the crown outlined the suffering of the young victim, who, they said self-harmed as a result of the trauma. She was first indecently assaulted by her step-father when she was just nine years old. During the trial the court had heard how he went into her room while her mother was out and inserted his fingers into her vagina. The child had pushed him away and urged him to stop, but not before he had sexually assaulted the little girl. He committed a similar incident some time later when they were together in a car and he turned down a dark road.
But when she was eleven years old, the crown said, her step-father raped the young girl in her bed while her mother was at the hospital giving birth to one of her siblings. Although she pushed him away and struggled, he continued the sexual attack, using a condom and telling her he would not hurt her. Afterwards he told the girl to take a bath. While she was in the bathroom she had attempted to alert her brother to call for help, but to no avail.
The child did not reveal the rape or the previous sexual assaults to anyone for some time. The offences did not come to light until several years later when she was a teenager while she was at a youth church event discussing sexual assault. She became very upset and eventually told one of her friends about her own experiences. That friend in turn told another adult, setting in motion the investigation.
Her step-father was arrested and then eventually charged in 2017. He was tried across a five-month period, as a result of numerous adjournments, and was eventually found guilty following a judge alone trial.
Because of a catalog of problems relating to court delays, as well as problems the defendant had with his original defence team and legal aid, the sentencing was adjourned on numerous occasions resulting in the lengthy delays, which his attorney also appealed to the judge to take into consideration as a mitigating factor.
Both of them are sick and should be banned from producing and raising children. Send him back to where he came from and while you at it send her stupid butt also.
I hope they lock him up for life! Prison is too good for him!!!
My lord have mercy. The mother of the girl “victim” needs to be checked by the mental health. The mother is still allowed to visit her husband in Northward prison. Your honour put the case together deport him back to his country. And have immigration to put his name in red writing and his face flashing as they turn their computers on daily. Give the little innocent child a sense of fresh air for the first time in her life. And her other little sibilings should not have to be put at risk to suffer the same experience and trauma. The mother sames to be the type of mother to put a man before her children. Children and family services needs to pay for a live in helper for those children or put those children in a home where they will be protected. No excuses for the father about no utilities and food in the home and about he is the bread winner for the family. Needs Assessments can step-up-to the plate and provide the family with water, electricity, food and any other needs that the family may have and their are other agencies that will be willing to help the family. And if the mother is unemployed, healthy and willing to work make sure to find her a job so that she can get up out of her comfort zone. Let her be independent and get out there to help provide for her innocent children who are looking up at her for help. And her take her mind off of that man she call her husband that is in Northward prison his needs are met. The time she take to go to prison to visit take that precious time to do things that is constructive and that will be beneficial to the children. For example take the children to the libruary, beach, park, walking no more excuses stop making my innocent little children suffer because of a man.
Work Permits are the cause of most of these incidents. This is the land of milk and honey, so government has open the doors for criminals and perverts to enter and live among us. He should be set afire. The mother is far worse than the husband, not shame, no dignity.
He is not even from here? Why do we keep inviting animals amongst us, and then let them stay?
Ask the mother. She’s the one that married him and gave him the right to stay.
Unless she is the Chief Immigration Officer she had no right to give her pig of a husband anything.
The mother will live with regret for the rest of her life when she finally wakes up and sees what she has done by defending a man that raped her innocent little girl. The man deserves the maximum time in jail. The Mother can get a job to feed her family like all of us do!
I hope the victim is getting the help she needs. So heartbreaking.
The young woman did not make this up, I believe her 100%.
He is a very sick man who we do not need anymore pedophiles here, we have enough sick, indigenous Caymanians. Send him back to St. Lucia. His worthless wife can go with him too.
I hope she realize how she has destroyed her daughter’s trust by standing by this monster, so she is telling her daughter either it didn’t happen and she is a liar or it did happen and she don’t care because he is the father of her other children.
Your mother is supposed to be your protector and even though she might not have known when it was happening, after she found out she just threw away her daughter for a man!
Disgraceful.
Unfortunately, the mother isn’t very intelligent so all the comments here will not affect her because she can’t read well.
Sick sick man – Lock him up for life!!! I pray this young lady can move forward and have a happy life, especially knowing she won’t ever have to see his face again!
That poor child. Raped by a stepfather whom your own mother continues to defend even after his conviction. And he did it while your mother was delivering his child. Good God. Why do our women have no self-respect? Just horrendous. At least the daughter had the strength to finally report it and be a witness in this case. She is transcending her mother’s obvious limitations. That man should never be let out of prison, the rest of the children are not safe from him!
The mother is as sick as the man, continuing to have more children with him. If he is incarcerated for a long time then they wont be able to have more babies. Also a numerous amount of local folks are being supported by Government so to add this family to the list wont be asking too much.
I wonder if it was a case of “oh I can’t say anything against him, I have it good here because of him” or “I love him so much I couldn’t possibly believe it was him, my 11 yo must be lying or mistaken” situations.