20 Years for Rape of Minor

Details

police

Friday, 20 July 2012 02:30

By caribarena news

Antigua St. John's - A man who had sexual intercourse with a teenager with the mental capacity of a six-year-old was on Thursday sentenced to 20 years in prison.

High Court Judge Justice Keith Thom told Simon “Mr. Fix-It” Davis that this is one of the worst cases he has come across involving the sexual abuse of a child.

Davis, 48, was convicted of eight counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a female under the age of 16 and one count of buggery.

Justice Thom sentenced the Dominican national to eight concurrent years on each count of unlawful sexual intercourse and 12 years on the buggery charge, which runs consecutive to the eight-year sentence.

Thom told Davis that he (the convict) had very little regard for women, which was clearly stated during the trial. Davis reportedly feels that women are unworthy of consideration, and are to be used and shared with friends.

Davis systematically abused the 14-year-old mentally challenged girl from September to November 2010.

“She (the victim) is a child of a simple mind. Her disabilities were told to you by her mother…You also regarded her as a simple person,” Thom said.

The judge said that the aggravating factors in this case by far outweighed the mitigating factors in that Davis breached the trust of the child’s family, repeatedly took advantage of the teenager, and offered her inducements (a cell phone). Justice Thom also drew attention to the level of perversion involved in the case (buggery and oral sex).

Thom also made mention of recent statistics announced by the Minister of Justice & Legal Affairs. Dr. Errol Cort has said that up to the end of June 2012 sixty (60) cases of sexual abuse of minors have been reported.

With this in mind, the High Court judge said that a strong message must be sent to other members of the community that this type of offense ought not to continue.

Davis addressed the court before the sentencing was passed. He made several attempts, laughing in the process before finally saying, “I am sorry. I would like to have little merciful to me about this.”

Davis, based on the Social Inquiry Report, took pride in attracting women. He told the probation officer that he has five girl children, whose names and ages he cannot remember.

The Dominican man, however, told his sister that he has nine children while admitting to his 21- year-old daughter that he has fathered 14 children. His daughter said she only knows of one other sibling - a sister. Her sister’s mother is her godmother.

Davis blamed his behavior on the consumption of alcohol and admitted to being an alcoholic, a claim family members and members of his community refuted.

While Davis admitted to drinking rum, other persons who know him said he drinks beer, but not hard liquor. They claim to never have seen him intoxicated.

His attorney Sherfield Bowen asked the court to be lenient and not impose a sentence at the highest end of the scale.

Bowen quoted several cases in which men were sentenced to one and two years for similar offenses. Prosecutor, Crown Counsel Adlai Smith, told the court that the cases that Bowen cited were dissimilar to this one and the mitigating factors in those cases outweighed the aggravating factors. Smith also said that there were no instances of perversion in those matters.

According to Smith, there are no mitigating circumstances in Davis’ case. He asked that the court use a starting point of eight years for the unlawful sexual intercourse and 10 to 12 years on the buggery offense.

Davis was a family friend who worked at a nearby garage in the village. He often got ice from the victim’s family while at work.

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During the trial it was revealed that Davis had sex with the teen at her home, his workplace and in some bushes while he was taking her to school.

Davis said the child told him she was 17-and-a-half years old. The De Souza Road man said he became close with the family and was told by the victim that she had lost a baby.

He told the teen he would marry her when she completed school.

Davis said that he has never been inside the victim’s house as alleged by her. He denied having intercourse with the child on the living room floor in her house, but admitted to encounters at his workplace and in his vehicle. He denies having anal sex with her.

Davis has previous convictions in his native Dominica. He admitted that he was convicted for grievous bodily harm and being in possession of an offensive weapon (a cutlass). He has denied ever being convicted for driving without a license among other offenses as outlined on his conviction record from the nature isle.

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