High Court Judge thinks VI law too soft on sex offenders
From the onset of presenting his summary in the sentencing of Penn, Justice Ramdhani made it clear that he was not in agreement with the allotted custodial time provisioned by law in the Virgin Islands for sex offenders.
On the seven counts of indecent assault, the Judge imposed a 3-year sentence, on the one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 13 years, Penn got 8 years and on the two counts of buggery 4 years each.
The judge then ordered that the three categories of the sentences run concurrently which put the total years to 15 years. However, after considering the length of the case, the judge took off five years.
Lawbreaking legislator
Penn was a teacher for many years and for four years sat in the House of Assembly of the Virgin Islands as one of the law and decision makers for the territory. After listening to the summary of Justice Darshan Ramdhani yesterday it was heard how much of a law breaker Penn was given the extent of the sexual offenses committed on the child who was just 10 years old at the time.
According to the High Court judge, as he had looked at the prevalence of sex offenders in the territory he has noted that in most cases these are committed by persons who are known to the victim and many times are related to them.
“These are not cases where the offender rapes in the darkness of night behind some bush or as one judge puts it, in some creepy alley and one just pounces on the victims, these are people trusted and known to the victims,” said Justice Ramdhani.
He further said that when these offences are committed to people known to the victims, it not only results in the usual harms that sexual crimes cause on the victims, “But they result in changing the social support structure of the victims forever….and even destroys the victims from trusting close family members… in this case the victim has lost her innocence and resulted in her also being removed from the home that she has become accustomed to…”
“The abuse and sexual molestation of anyone and more so young children will not be tolerated by the court and a strong message must be sent. Offenders will face the full course of the law. The animal instinct in all offenders must be brought out into the open under the light and must face the full grade of justice. The court must be prepared to impose proper sentences to prevent such crime from being committed,” said Justice Ramdhani.
As he passed sentence on Penn he said, “It is my fervent hope that this sentence would send a message to other sex offenders out there, if not for the delay in this case, the appropriate sentence in my view would have been a total of fifteen years, you have gotten the benefit of that.”
Justice Ramdhani urged that persons who know of victims, or are themselves victims of sex offenders to come forward. “Make sexual offenders accountable. The complainant in this case must be commended for her courage in pursuing this matter through six years and two trials. This has been a real turmoil for her but it may be at an end but only time will tell. In any event, I hope she will be able to move on with her life.”
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23 Responses to “High Court Judge thinks VI law too soft on sex offenders”
Pumpkin look out. you could be in some real trouble now . he coming in your cell.
Well done sir...
I wish I was in prison and had to share a cell with this beast- I would castrate him and shove his d..k down his throat-
I heard the judge criticizing the previous judge as being lenient when she gave Penelope 12 years. Now he should be ashamed for imposing a lower sentence.
I am ashamed to be a lawyer. This is total hogwash.
This guy is going nowhere.