13-year sentence for child rapist

A man who raped an 11-year-old girl twice and threatened her into silence, has been sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison.

A court-imposed order prevents the Cayman Compass from releasing the identity of the 34-year-old George Town man, who is currently before the court on a separate case.

The man befriended the child on a social media website, telling her he was a 14-year-old boy named Jeremy.

“He said he liked my pictures because he thought I was very pretty and he wanted to be my friend,” said the child in an initial recorded police interview which was played for the jury.

It was revealed that after months of conversations, the child discovered the defendant was much older than he had claimed to be, and after an argument she blocked him on social media platforms.

However, the man created new pages and again reached out to the child. He eventually threatened her into meeting up with him in a parking lot not far from her house.

“He told me to come outside because he wanted to talk to me, and that if I didn’t he would tell my friends and family all the things that I was doing,” said the child. “Although I wasn’t doing anything, I still went because he also said he would tell them all the things I told him about them.”

A similar tactic was used to lure the child out of her home on a second occasion.

“His conduct was in callous disregard to her welfare, he being a person almost three times her age,” said Justice Cheryll Richards, while handing down the verdict on Thursday, 11 April.

While a conviction for rape has an average sentencing starting point of 10 to 12 years, with the possibility of up to life in prison, the law allows for an uplift in cases involving a child.

When handing down her sentence, Richards began with a starting point of 15 years – noting that the child’s age was significant enough to merit an uplift in the starting point.

She then added six months because the rapes occurred after 11pm on each occasion, a time she says the child should have been safe inside – but was lured out by the defendant’s manipulation.

After increasing the sentence, Richards then considered the defendant’s mitigating circumstances.

The man had 16 previous convictions, none of a similar nature.

Due to his personal circumstances, Richards reduced the sentence by two years, leaving 13 years and six months for each of the two counts of rape.

The judge, however, ordered the sentences to run concurrently – meaning he will serve them at the same time instead of one after the other.

A sexual harm prevention order was also made against him, which requires that upon release the defendant does not make contact with the victim in any way. In addition, he is not to make contact with any female under the age of 16 except when dealing with his child.

He is not to apply for any job that would require him work with any females under the age of 16. He must notify police of his physical address and all associated social media profiles.

The order is to last for 10 years upon release. If he breaks the terms of the order, he would be subject to another four years in prison.

Richards ordered that the time served in custody be subtracted from his sentence.