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Teen convicted of rape, buggery, murder to learn fate this week

Loop News

September 18, 2022 7:24 PM ET

3 mins read

The sentencing of a 17-year-old boy who was convicted of the 2018 rape, buggery and murder of a nine-year-old girl in Westmoreland, has been pushed back to later this week.

It is the second time the sentencing has been pushed back since the teenager was found guilty of all l three charges by a six-member jury in the Westmoreland Circuit Court on July 1.

The matter was initially set for sentencing on July 28, but was transferred to the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston for sentencing on Friday of last week.

However, High Court Judge, Justice Courtney Daye, was told that Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Paula Llewellyn, was unavailable for Friday’s sentencing hearing.

The convicted teenager was remanded in custody until Friday, September 23, when the sentencing hearing is expected to get under way.

According to the evidence that was led at the trial, the girl accepted the teenager’s invitation to pick apples together as they walked home from school.

However, she was sexually assaulted and killed by the teen boy, who contended at the trial that two men raped and killed the girl.

But the teenager admitted to having had sex with the girl after the two men had completed their ‘acts’.

Testimony from a leading DNA expert and forensic evidence proved that material found in the female minor’s anus matched that of the teenage boy.

A pathologist testified, too, that the child died from asphyxia due to manual strangulation, and there were lacerations to her vagina and anus.

Llewellyn, in speaking to reporters after the verdict in July, said the conclusion of the case has negative consequences for both the families of the victim and the convict.

“It’s a tragic situation… (for) the family of the deceased whose daughter who really suffered a brutal end, and the family of the accused whose son will have to take responsibility for what was a very, very awful moment of youthful exuberance,” she said at the time.

“I think that is the best way I can describe it, but it was an awful moment which really, really had negative consequences for the life of someone who he (the convict) grew up with, and he would have been in a position of trust since he was the bigger person,” Llewellyn further stated.

According to her, the conviction was a team effort, and “a very good case was compiled”.

The top prosecutor also stated that the relevant evidentiary material and exhibits were adequately presented at the trial.