59-year-old man jailed for 14 years for sexual assault of child

A middle-aged man has been sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for attempting to have sexual intercourse with a five-year-old girl, amongst other charges.

On Monday, Justice Brian Cottle handed down three concurrent prison sentences to 59-year-old Allan Goodluck who had been found guilty at the High Court of abduction, indecent assault with a child under 15 and attempted sexual intercourse with a child under 13.

The charges arose out of an incident that took place on Saturday, January 12, 2019 at Goodluck’s home.

The facts were that Goodluck placed the child on his bed, and removed her tights and underwear. He then placed his penis to her vagina and told her not to tell anyone what had transpired between them.

However, a woman visited Goodluck at the time he was with the child, and called out to him. When he answered, she happened to see a small child on Goodluck’s bed, and as a result, the matter was reported to the police.

Goodluck was subsequently arrested and charged for committing four offences against the child.

However, he was acquitted of one charge, that he did have unlawful sexual intercourse with a child under 13.

Upon Goodluck’s sentencing for attempting to have sexual intercourse with a child under 13, Justice Cottle considered the “tender age of the child,” the significant age disparity between Goodluck and the child, and the fact that he told her not to report the matter to anyone.

As a result, he placed the seriousness and consequence of the offence in the highest category and level, and started with a custodial sentence of 20 years.

He found that there were no aggravating and mitigating factors of the offence.

Mitigating of the offender was that Goodluck has had no previous convictions, and that his family members and friends found that this offence was “completely out of character.”

Also, Goodluck did not proceed with his actions with the child when the visitor came by his house, and there was no violence done to the child during the attempted sexual intercourse.

And so, Cottle deducted six years from his sentence, resulting in a notional sentence of 14 years.

Cottle also deducted Goodluck’s time spent on remand which amounted to eight months and 15 days. Consequently, the final sentence for this offence is 13 years, three months and 15 days.

As for his conviction relating to indecent assault with a child under the age of 15, Cottle also placed this offence into the highest Category and Level as it relates to the seriousness and consequence of this offence, and resulted in a custodial sentence of three years.

For the abduction charge, Cottle considered that the offence had an adverse psychological impact on the child, and placed the offence into category two level. As a result, he sentenced Goodluck to two years and six months in prison.

Goodluck was unrepresented during the trial, while Crown Counsel Renée Simmons led the case for the Crown.