Leandro Solomon, 28, walked out of court a free man Friday despite being sentenced to six months in prison for indecently assaulting a woman.
A Grand Court jury unanimously convicted Solomon of a single count of indecent assault.
The incident occurred on 14 Oct. 2018, when Solomon approached a woman who was walking alone along South Church Street. Solomon initially asked her for a cigarette and then struck up a conversation as he walked next to her. During the trial, the woman told the jury the conversation soon changed and Solomon began making verbal advances towards her, offering to pay her rent in exchange of sexual favours.
When she denied his advances, he indecently exposed himself, and then proceeded to indecently assault her by grabbing her buttocks. The 20-minute ordeal was captured on video. Following his guilty conviction in the Grand Court, Solomon returned to Summary Court to face the matter of indecent exposure, to which he pleaded guilty.
When appearing before the Grand Court on Friday, Justice Cheryll Richards noted that the aggravating circumstances surrounding the incident outweighed the few mitigating circumstances.
“This incident occurred while you were on court bail,” Richards told Solomon. “The terms of the bail condition was for you to abstain from the consumption of all drugs, and, by your own admissions during an initial interview, you admitted to having consumed alcohol at the time of the incident.”
Richards also noted that the incident occurred on a stretch of road which at the time had no one else there to help. She also noted that Solomon assaulted the woman, exposed himself and performed lewd acts to himself despite the woman’s pleas for him to stop.
In terms of mitigating circumstances, Richards noted Solomon’s mental health condition and the fact that he has no previous convictions of a similar nature.
She imposed a sentence of six months for the charge of indecent assault. She then reduced that sentence to four months to reflect the mitigating circumstances. She also gave Solomon 41 days credit for the nine months he spent in custody.
Richards also ordered that the time served in custody be deducted from his sentence. She also sentenced Solomon to 30 days for the count of indecent exposure and ordered the sentence to run concurrent to the first charge.
The subsequent result was that, despite receiving a custodial sentence, all the time spent on curfew and in custody meant he will not serve any additional time.
“This means that you will be released today,” said Richards.
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