Local man jailed over sex with underage girl
Cayman Islands courthouse
(CNS): A local man wept as he was taken down to the cells Tuesday after a judge jailed him for 16 months for having sex with an underage girl on two occasions. Mark Charles Bodden admitted having sex with the teenager in 2011 after she invited him to her house while her parents were out. At the time the defendant was a decade older than his teenage victim. Bodden was arrested and charged after the girl’s mother discovered text messages between the two of them and he confessed immediately.
At the time of the offence Bodden was a married man with a child and has since fathered two more children. For legal reasons CNS is unable to reveal the victim’s age. Although he has no previous convictions for sex-related offences, Bodden was on probation for ganja and marine related offences when he was charged.
Based on sentencing guidelines, the judge arrived at a sentence of two years and discounted that to 16 months. Although he was urged by the defence attorney to suspend the sentence, the judge said he could see “no valid reason to justify suspending the sentence” but said the time Bodden had spent on remand would be taken into account.
During the sentencing ruling the judge revealed that Bodden had undergone a psychiatric evaluation and doctors had found that while he had no major disorders or tendencies towards bizarre behaviour, “his low self-esteem increases his vulnerability to any female who expresses interest in him”, and that his thought processes and problem solving techniques could predisposed the offender to “impaired decision making”.
He is an adult and she is a child by law. If she invited him to her house when her parents were not home, right away that should have alerted him that trouble was waiting. He should have reported her to the authorities and not act the fool. He should have stayed home and prayed for her.
This is statutory rape. He should get a minimum of ten years! Under 12 victim; life imprisonment. And, all sentences should be consecutive. For Pete’s sake, why do we allow lawyers to determine these things? Their legalistic approaches are ruining our children. Less than two years for committing two counts of statutory rape??? Wow! Life is cheap. Children’s lives are cheaper. Girl children’s lives are t he cheapest!
1. Why did it take from 2011 until now to convict this guy?
2. Any of the MLAs or Churches wish to express any views on this matter? It seems that there is a strong view towards same gender relationships and how “disgusting” they are, so surely something like this should trigger some reaction? No? Thought so!
Nobody cares what the MLA’s or Churches have to say regarding issues like this because the consensus is that everyone typically agrees that it is wrong. No one is fighting for this guys right to be immoral or be able to molest, rape or have sex with underage children. The churches have largely condemned these kinds of actions as well. They also provide counseling and care for adults and children who have experienced this kind of terrible thing. But seeing as how a church or and MLA stating that they believe a rapist is wrong and should be punished isn’t controversial enough and doesn’t sell newspapers or make people want to watch the news it is highly unlikely that it would even be covered by the media to begin with.
CNS: We would cover it.
And by “Counsel” you mean try to get a criminal to believe in a mythical being that will relieve that monster of any ping of guilt as long as the monster can pay his 10% cover charge.
Not the this doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world but it is wayyyyyy to sexual for these teenagers here. With nothing else to do they all just hookup and have babies as babies. This guy is a predator of low self-esteem girls.
Does this country have Statutory rape Law?
Does it matter?
A proud artifact of our education system. I know a campus on Cayman where people like him can hang out in a courtyard filled with students who barley open their text-book. Lots of low hanging fruit there and a President out there who will just say that’s how caymans are, we cant do anything about it.
This was an inappropriate ruling which sends the wrong message to the public.
“Mark Charles Bodden admitted having sex with the teenager in 2011 after she invited him to her house while her parents were out.”
Is that his excuse???
In the end, we are all just animals and nothing more. We serve no purpose on this earth, human life is meaningless. We all in some way sumbit to our animalistic behavior in some shape or form. Unfortunatley for Mark he could not control his human evolved instinct to mate, which we have been doing for ten’s of thousand’s of years.
Oh boy. Yes all, lets justify this by saying his self esteem makes him vulnerable to TEENAGERS!!! You should know right from wrong. I would sympathize if he had a mental issue but clearly there’s none! Just too damn horny!
And people rush to defend the man who did a series of wrong things and KILLED someone when his vehicle crossed into the other side of the road.