Editor’s Note: This article contains sensitive content relating to the sexual abuse of a child.
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – A High Court judge has sentenced a 56-year-old man to nearly 34 years in prison after he was found guilty of raping his seven-year-old daughter.
Justice Brian Cottle sentenced the man to 33 years, 10 months and 18 days in jail for four counts of rape, four counts of incest and one count of indecent assault against his daughter, who was six or seven years old when he first violated her when he was 49.
The court heard that the crimes took place between June 2017 and December 2021 and the child was 10 years old when a report was made on her behalf against her father, with whom she was living at the time.
The child recounted that at about age six or seven, while in Grade 3, her father went into the bedroom she shared with her sister, woke her up and told her to follow him into his bedroom.
When they got there, he instructed her to take off her clothes and lie on the bed, which she did.
The man then proceeded to have sex with the child. After the act, he told her to put back on her clothes and go back to the bedroom and not tell anyone. The child complied.
The man did the same thing to the girl sometime after the volcanic eruption of April 2021, when the child was about nine years old.
She was sleeping with her sister when he instructed her to follow him to his bedroom, which she did. However, in addition to raping his daughter, on this occasion, the father had her perform fellatio on him.
Then, one morning after Christmas, while the child was watching television in the living room, the father approached her and asked her if she wanted to have sexual intercourse.
The child told him no, but he begged her, “Please. Please. Please.” and told her that he would give her anything she wanted. The child followed her father into the bedroom and he had sex with her.
Then, on the morning of May 10, 2022, the man gave his daughter some chores, which included hanging out her and her sister’s clothes and cleaning her room. When the child was finished, the man asked her if she wanted to have sexual intercourse and she said yes.
She then went onto the bed in the living room and took off her clothes. He then had sex with the child there.
Later that morning, the child confided in her best friend about what had happened between her and her father.
During the lunch break that day, they both went to their former class teacher and the child told the teacher that her father usually had sexual intercourse with her, the last time being that very morning.
The teacher reported the matter to the principal who then reported it to a senior education officer, who instructed the principal to report it to the police.
As part of their investigation, the police took the child to a health facility, where a medical examination revealed an absent hymen and vaginal discharge indicative of a sexual infection.
The man faced a maximum of five years for indecent assault, life imprisonment for unlawful sexual intercourse (USI) with a girl under the age of 13 and 40 years for incest.
Justice Cottle presiding at his last case before ending a 17-year career as a judge, noted that the man had no previous convictions for offences of a sexual nature.
On the first of the four counts of USI with a girl under the age of 13, the judge established a starting point of two-thirds of the maximum sentence or 20 years in prison.
Justice Cottle noting the significant age disparity said there was abuse of a position of trust, the man took steps to encourage the child not to report the offence, and she was under the age of 10.
Aggravating of the offence was that the girl lived with her father, where her mother had left her. Further, the pre-sentencing reports spoke of the traumatic effect of the man’s crimes on his daughter. She had issues trusting other people and felt sad and lonely. Additionally, ejaculation had occurred.
Mitigating of the offence was that there was no gratuitous violence.
On each of the other four counts of USI, the judge noted that the practice direction issued by the chief justice indicated that where more than one offence is committed in the same transaction or arises out of the same facts, they can be sentenced together.
However, where the offences are committed on separate dates, the sentences should be consecutive.
The judge applied the totality principle, and after deducting the time spent on remand, sentenced the man to 21 years, 10 months and 18 days on the first count of USI.
On each of the other three counts, he was ordered to serve two years in prison, consecutive to each other, meaning that for raping his daughter, the man will serve 27 years, 10 months and 18 days in prison.
On the incest charges, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison on the first count and one year each on the other three counts, to run consecutive to each other, but concurrent with the sentence for USI.
On the indecent assault charge, the man was sentenced to three years in prison, to run concurrent to the sentences for USI.
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