Sexual predator jailed for four years

A 35-year-old man who filmed the sexual acts he had a four-year-old child do to him, will spend four years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of indecent assault of a minor under the age of 15.

Under the Criminal Code, this offence has a maximum possible penalty of five years incarceration, while for any victim over the age of 15, the maximum penalty is two years.

The offender is a security guard who was in a position of trust as a caretaker for a four year old child. In a video spread illegally across social media, he is shown directing the pre-schooler to participate in an act of oral sex. The video appeared to be a call that was made to another person.

Since this video surfaced on December 29, 2021, the day of the incident, outrage has sparked across St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The individual responsible was arrested and taken to court on January 3. He pleaded guilty in the Family Court to two counts of indecent assault.

The first count occurred on an unknown date in 2020, and the second count is the date of the video.

The law mandates that when offenders enter guilty pleas at the earliest opportunity for any crime, they are given a one third reduction of any sentence they receive.

The method by which the sentence is calculated also instructs a sentencing magistrate or judge to consider mitigating factors.

It is said that the perpetrator in this case had no previous criminal record.

The court also considers the aggravating factors and weigh these against the mitigating factors.

The specifics of the breakdown of the sentence is not known and repeated contacts made to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution’s (DPP) found that she has been unavailable.

However, the final sentence on each count was two years in prison, to run consecutively, i.e one after the other.

It is said that the police are looking into other aspects of the incident and may be considering other possible charges.