The 52-year-old man who in January 2020 attempted to bugger a 7-year-old boy has been jailed for three years and eight months for his offence.
Justice Brian Cottle handed down the sentence on Tyrone Antoine, a self-employed diver, of Prospect, today (Monday) at High Court No. 1, in Kingstown.
For his guilty plea, Antoine was afforded a 20% discount on his sentence instead of the maximum one-third as he pleaded guilty when a trial was about to start, rather than at the earliest opportunity.
According to the facts presented by Justice Cottle, the boy’s mother came upon Antoine as he was attempting to bugger the child.
The mother saw that the child’s pants and underwear were down, as were Antoine’s.
The mother could also see Antoine’s penis and observed that he was wearing a condom.
The mother, using expletives, angrily demanded that Antoine explain what he was doing.
She told her son to put his clothes on and leave.
Antoine laughed at the woman’s question and he struck him several blows.
The woman was only wearing a bath towel wrapped around her and she called to her older child to bring her a cutlass.
“Luckily for [Antoine], that older [child] did not respond,” the judge said.
The mother shouted to the father of her son, who lived nearby. The mother then left and went to her home to look for a weapon.
Antoine used this opportunity to slip away and by the time the child’s father arrived, Antoine had left.
The woman took her child to the police station and made a report. The following day, she took the child for a medical examination.
The child testified at the preliminary inquiry, telling the court that on the day of the incident, Antoine had told him that he wanted to have anal intercourse with him.
Antoine also told the child that he also wanted to have sex with the child’s mother and had touched the child’s bottom after pulling down the child’s pants.
The judge noted that at the time of the offence, Antoine was 49 years old.
Justice Cottle outlined the aims of criminal punishment, namely retribution, deterrence, prevention and rehabilitation.
He noted that there are sentencing guidelines that the court must follow for sexual offences.
The guidelines say that the first step is for the court to establish a starting point by considering the seriousness of the offence by considering its consequences.
The guidelines also specify categories of harms.
“But, sadly, for the offence of buggery and attempted buggery, there are no specific guidelines,” Justice Cottle said, adding that this is something that has to be looked into.
In arriving at his starting sentence, the judge considered a Dominican case in which a jurist used a starting point of six years’ imprisonment.
He noted that in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the maximum sentence for buggery is 10 years imprisonment, the same as for attempted buggery.
Justice Cottle cited the local case of Kozan “Deuce” Haywood and Jaranza “Pocho” Howe, in which the court used a starting point of five years, or 50% of the maximum sentence.
He noted that that case involved buggery.
In Antoine’s case, the judge adopted a starting point of 50% of the maximum.
He said aggravating features of the offence were that the child was less than 8 years old at the time and there was abuse of trust.
Antoine had a condom, which showed some level of premeditation.
Mitigating of the offence was the fact that there was no gratuitous violence meted out to the child.
The judge found no aggravating feature of the offender, noting that there was no previous relevant conviction. He also found no mitigating feature of the offender.
He, however, held that the aggravating features outweighed the mitigation, and moved the sentence upwards by six months, taking the notional sentence to five years and six months.
Regarding credit for the guilty plea, the judge noted that Antoine did not plead guilty at the first opportunity.
He, however, noted that in pleading guilty, Antoine had spared the young virtual complainant the ordeal of having to recount the incident in a room full of strangers in the initiating atmosphere of a court.
After the 20% credit for the guilty plea was applied, the sentence was reduced to three years and eight months.
The 13 days that Antoine spent on remand was subtracted from the sentence and he was ordered to serve a sentence of three years, seven months and 17 days.
Antoine was initially scheduled to be sentenced last Friday but the sentence was adjourned to today, so as to allow the judge to consider the further submission of the Crown and defence.
Rose-Ann Richardson appeared for the Crown while Grant Connell represented the accused.
On Friday, Connell had suggested that Antoine’s offence bordered on indecent assault and suggested a suspended sentence.
Is way really going on here boy? These people doing this thing for spite now man!
The leniency of this sentence is horrific. I find the judge citing the minimal sentences handed down in previous “local” cases as rationale quite distressing. As is the fact that forcefully committing this act is not considered by law to be attempted rape. What else could it possibly be? Let’s just keep compounding the errors, shall we?
I understand what the judge said, and what he did. Any grown man that attempted to do such an act to a child should be locked up for a long time. When he come out he will do it to another child.
This is sad for the child. This man is sick.
Is this Briman?
[…] Well, I really don’t support shooting homosexuals … For the Most High shows that such immoral people can change for the better. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Psalm 83:18. But the homosexual act is disgusting and should be hated strongly. It is unnatural. Romans 1:26, 27. The man deserves a longer jail sentence.
Man this licence that authorize this B..ller thing has gone to far now. When i was in my teens this word was a disipictable term. In contemporary times they nice in up to call it gay and be proud. What do you expect forkes call ia spade a spade and a king a king and stop the nice up thing. The term should be resorted to ther old Vincentian term Bu..er and the opposite is still true of the name Za.e for the likes of a females.
He needs life sentence
People like these should get the maximum sentence even if it is 10 years.No darn discount whether they plea guilty! They BIG and they have SENSE! My only regret is that the child’s parent didn’t get the chance to tie him up or hold him down and cut off his penis – as a matter of fact, kill him on spot so he would not have the chance to do this to anyone else! This probably wasn’t even his first victim. SVG needs “cleaning up”.
He was DEAD if that was my child. No question, no remorse.
I wonder who is Yogi NI??? I hope no one attempting to impersonate me …
Fire and brimstone stone him to his dimise
Is bu..ng st vincent the new norm?
No mental disorder, n mental health issue, he should get d full 10 years. You’re a grown hard back man.These kids are our future
Anyone accused of rape, in my opinion their penis should be amputated.
Two homo men challenged our buggery laws in our high court asserting that it inftinges on their constiutional rights . What will happen if they win?
Under which constitution? Can’t be St. Vincent