Sex offender’s appeal to cut jail time fails

| 22/06/2023 | 13 Comments
Cayman News Service
Courthouse in George Town

(CNS): An application by Kayson Ricardo Holness (34) to reduce a 33-month sentence, which was imposed in May last year after he pleaded guilty to child pornography charges, has failed. Holness was convicted of possessing, posting and sharing videos of child sexual abuse. One of the videos he transmitted included images of a baby, possibly as young as four months old, being raped.

In June 2020, the police opened an investigation into a Facebook posting under the name Djfreshlink after the images were sent to Sandy Hill, the owner of Cayman Marl Road, and she passed them on to the police.

The social media posting was traced to Holness, a Jamaican national who was in Cayman working as a barber at the time. He was arrested and admitted to downloading and sharing the video but claimed he did so to see if someone recognised the infant.

At the time he said that he did not know it was illegal to transmit such images. But when his phone was analysed by police intelligence officers, they found other videos containing child pornography that had been sent to other people.

He was convicted last year and sentenced by Justice Cheryll Richards, who based her sentencing on UK guidelines in the continuing absence of local guidelines in the Cayman Islands for such offences.

Although Keith Myers, the attorney who represented Holness, had presented some previous local cases to the court, the judge found that none of them applied. According to the published ruling from the Court of Appeal, the higher court agreed with the sentencing judge that there were factors in this case that were more serious.

Starting with a potential five-year term, Justice Richards identified two aggravating factors: the age as well as the discernible pain and distress of the child depicted in the video. As a result, the sentence was increased by eight months.

She then took into account mitigating factors, including Holness’s cooperation, delays in the case that were not his fault, his early admissions, his remorse and the fact that he had no previous convictions, as well as the standard one-third discount for an early guilty plea.

The judge arrived at the sentence of two years and nine months and imposed a sexual harm prevention order.

Representing Holness at the appeal, Myers argued that the sentence was manifestly excessive because the starting point was too high and was inconsistent with other sentences in the Cayman Islands for similar offences.

However, the appeal court disagreed. The panel said that Justice Richards had a right to start higher than the English guidelines, given that the maximum sentence here for these types of offences is higher than in the UK, and judges have ultimate discretion in relation to their starting points.

They also rejected Myers’ points about three other cases. The appeal court found that the information they provided was inadequate, and the information that the court had indicated that these cases were different, involving less serious categories of images.

“We agree with the judge that no useful assistance can be derived from these three cases,” the appeal court judges stated in their ruling. “The facts appear to vary considerably, and there is no explanation of the sentences or of the surrounding circumstances. Furthermore, all of them appear to be less serious in certain respects than the present case.”

The appeal court said, “As has often been stated, offences of possession or transmission of indecent images of children are not victimless crimes. Real children are sexually abused in order to produce the images. Those who download or transmit such images help fuel the market for their production. In this case, a child between 4 and 18 months old was sexually penetrated by an adult male and clearly suffered considerably.”

Supporting the decision of the sentencing judge, the appeal court justices said the total sentence was not manifestly excessive, given the material concerned, and that she had reduced the sentence to account for mitigating factors and Holness’s admissions. They said that Myers’ arguments “must fail”, as they dismissed the appeal and upheld the sentence.

Holness has already served more than a year of the sentence. As all prisoners serve only 66% of their time in jail and the rest on licence on the basis of good behaviour, he can expect to be released early next year.

The publication of the appeal caused a stir on social media this week, as many people believe the sentence was far too light.

Speaking on Cayman Marl Road on Thursday, Premier Wayne Panton said that he would talk to the attorney general about the issue of inadequate sentences for such offences and ask why Cayman still doesn’t have a system for publicising the names of convicted offenders. While a sex offenders register now exists, it is not public and access is reserved for law enforcement and related agencies.

Although there continues to be public demand for mandatory minimum sentences, many experts believe that they do not help and that judges are best placed to decide on these types of cases, since circumstances can vary widely. The judges, who have the full details of each specific offence and offender, can then exercise their judgment based on those facts.

Cayman introduced a mandatory minimum sentence for firearms offences, which has done nothing to reduce local gun crime. But men and women convicted of illegal gun possession have been sentenced to the same jail term, even though cases vary widely in seriousness.

Some attorneys have argued that this has led to genuine injustices which the courts have been unable to correct because of the ineffectual mandatory minimum sentence.


Share your vote!


How do you feel after reading this?
  • Fascinated
  • Happy
  • Sad
  • Angry
  • Bored
  • Afraid

Tags: , , , , , ,

Category: Courts, Crime

Comments (13)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    33 months? Something is wrong with sentencing for child pornography in Cayman

    2023: Ron DeSantis has signed into law a measure making child rape subject to the death penalty.

    2023: Punta Gorda (FL) man sentenced to 6 1/2 years for child pornography
    2022: Fort Myers man sentenced to life for child molestation, child porn
    2022: Bonita Springs man sentenced to 7 years in prison for possession of child pornography
    2022: Fort Myers man to serve 18 years in prison for sex crimes against a child
    2022: Lee County man sentenced to 25 years in prison for possession of child pornography
    2022: Lehigh Acres man sentenced to 50 years for making child pornography
    2022: Ex-Collier County deputy sentenced to 25 years for possessing child pornography
    (source: WInknews, SWFL)

    6
    1
  2. Anon. says:

    33 months????? He should have gotten 33 years to start XXXX

    I am ashamed of the laws and the politicians in this country who make them for child molesters and rapists. What message are you sending to women and especially children when child molesters and people caught with child pornography are only being given 18 months, 24 months, 33 months!!! You all are a disgrace!!

    14
    1
  3. Anonymous says:

    Mitigating factors? What mitigating factors. My god, lock him up, let the other inmates know what he’s done then deport him as soon as his sentence is finished.

    19
    1
    • Anonymous says:

      Mitigating factors in child pornography cases do not exist. These people are mentally sick and must be locked up for life.

      6
      1
  4. Anonymous says:

    Then who was the psycho doing these things and taking photos, and are they still out there around kids? Which device does the originating metadata of those images attach to? Does the RCIPS even know what metadata is? If so, why aren’t we reading about that? The holes in the detective work are almost as scary as the crimes.

    CNS: I think your criticism is harsh. The RCIPS does have specialists and also does work with international organisations – see the IWF reporting portal, which has a link on many local websites, including CNS. If the image was generated withing the Cayman Islands it would be a local crime and investigated here, but it’s much more likely that it was generated elsewhere. In which case, I’m guessing that the RCIPS is coordinating with the appropriate authorities.

    Also keep in mind that investigations involving the abuse of children are generally not made public for obvious reasons.

    1
    3
  5. Anonymous says:

    The problem here are the discounts applied. The 5 year starting point is far harsher than in the UK, which is good, as it does show that child sexual abuse is being taken seriously. If this was the UK, he’d be out already.

    So, I’m happy that the appeal was denied, but for sex offenses against children, we must look at how minimum sentences are upheld.

    Also, yeah, kick his paedo ass back to Jamaica as soon as that prison door is unlocked.

  6. Anonymous says:

    This germ should have been given a much longer sentence and then deported back to Jamaica. Caymanians we need to take our country back!

    13
    • Anonymous says:

      Agree but sadly there are children in Jamaica who will need protection from this pathetic excuse of a human. There should NOT be leniency for good behavior – serve the time.

      Does his Cayman record follow him to Jamaica? Will authorities be informed?

  7. Anonymous says:

    The biggest failure here is that he only got 33 months. Sexual predators get off way too lightly here and this often leads to reoffending. Rapists and people who mess with children should receive the same punishment as murderers.

    45
  8. Anonymous says:

    Why no deportation order? Seriously!!!!!

    49
    • Anonymous says:

      Exactly! He should be deported and taken to the airport from the prison. What kind of animal would do that to a child? What kind of disgusting devil possessed person would feel the need to share it! He sure sent it to the right person. Thank you Sandra!

  9. Anonymous says:

    Why is there no order in place for his immediate deportation after he serves his time? This type of person has absolutely no right to remain in our country.

    56
  10. Anonymous says:

    This story made me feel incredibly ill. As a supposedly evolved species we create some truly monstrous people.

    53

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.