Got TIPS or BREAKING NEWS? Please call 1-284-442-8000 direct/can also WhatsApp same number or Email ALL news to:newsvino@outlook.com;                               ads call 1-284-440-6666

2 year suspended sentence for teenage sex offender

High Court Judge Nicola P. Byer on June 15, 2017 imposed a 2 year suspended sentence on a teenager who had pleaded guilty of engaging in sexual intercourse with a 12 year girl some two years ago. Photo: VINO/File
ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI - A nineteen year-old man was spared spending time behind bars at Her Majesty’s Prison in Balsum Ghut when he faced sentencing by High Court Judge Nicola P. Byer on June 15, 2017.

Guilty of engaging in sexual intercourse with a 12 year girl, the judged imposed a two year suspended sentence on the youth and sternly warned him not to get in any trouble with the law during that period or the suspension would be lifted.

The young man was represented by attorney Ruthilea Maximea, who pleaded with the judge for a non-custodial sentence, stating that the case can be considered as a one-off offence, “when children are eager to explore. Both were children, both naive, both consented,” she told the court.

The man was 17 years old at the time of the offence.

Act was committed behind parked truck

According to the facts in the case, on the day in question the girl, who was 12 year at the time, had invited the offender to her home and during his visit was greeted by the young girl who was dressed in pajamas, at the gate. The two then proceeded to an abandoned lot, where they had sexual intercourse behind a parked truck.

This incident was brought to the attention of the girl’s parent, who was prompt to report it to the police, and the male teenager was charged.

The High Court judge, while handing down the sentence, stated that she did not order immediate incarceration because she believes the circumstances of the offence are ‘exceptional’.

Justice Byer described the accused actions to be parallel with “youth and immaturity”, with one being older than the other.

5 Responses to “2 year suspended sentence for teenage sex offender”

  • apple pie (16/06/2017, 14:43) Like (0) Dislike (3) Reply
    We have lost a whole generation
  • wth (16/06/2017, 15:16) Like (3) Dislike (2) Reply
    Naïve my behind. He knows better.
  • wow (16/06/2017, 15:23) Like (18) Dislike (6) Reply
    These parents always act like their daughters are the innocent ones! Set of BAD THINGS they raising!
  • de silent one (17/06/2017, 00:47) Like (3) Dislike (5) Reply
    Well Sa! He was at the time of committing the act 17 years old considered an adult and should have known better. Even though she may have invited him to her house, he knew very well what was possibility of intimacy and should have acted to his age. The sentence was too Lenient
    • chad (19/06/2017, 10:17) Like (4) Dislike (0) Reply
      some of these young lady out here lying on them age their 12, but saying them 16 and them body type aint look like no little girl no more some of these 12 looking like 18 years and how some of them dress. I'm not saying what he did was right but both are wrong he should have never gone to her place and she should have never been out her house. their both knew what their were meeting up to do.


Create a comment


Create a comment

Disclaimer: Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) welcomes your thoughts, feedback, views, bloggs and opinions. However, by posting a blogg you are agreeing to post comments or bloggs that are relevant to the topic, and that are not defamatory, liable, obscene, racist, abusive, sexist, anti-Semitic, threatening, hateful or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be excluded permanently from making contributions. Please view our declaimer above this article. We thank you in advance for complying with VINO's policy.

Follow Us On

Disclaimer: All comments posted on Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) are the sole views and opinions of the commentators and or bloggers and do not in anyway represent the views and opinions of the Board of Directors, Management and Staff of Virgin Islands News Online and its parent company.