A 44-year-old man who touched a 13-year-old girl on her vagina and exposed his penis as they were travelling on public transportation to the leeward side of St. Vincent has been jailed.
The man, Demond Grant, had denied the charges that he indecently assaulted the VC and committed an act of gross indecency against her on June 1, 2024, she being a girl under the age of 15.
However, a nine-member jury found Grant guilty, leading to his sentencing by High Court judge Justice Rickie Burnett on Friday.
The facts, as presented by Justice Burnett, are that the VC, along with her sister and a female friend, boarded a passenger van at the Leeward Bus terminal to travel to a destination on the leeward side of St. Vincent.
The VC’s sister sat in the front passenger seat of the van next to the driver, while the VC and her friend sat on the back seat.
The VC’s friend was sitting at the right-side window on the back seat of the van.
The VC said next to her friend, and Grant sat to the left of the VC, with another passenger — a man — at the left window of the vehicle.
During the journey, Grant began touching the VC’s leg.
At first, the child believed that the touch was accidental and moved closer to her friend.
However, Grant moved closer to the VC and intentionally rubbed the palm of his hand up and down her thigh multiple times and even touched her vagina.
The VC was fearful and on reaching a particular point in the journey, she noticed that Grant’s pants were unbuttoned and unzipped and his erect penis was exposed.
Grant was looking at the child and she placed her bag between them.
When they got to another community, the child exited the back seat of the vehicle and told her sister what had happened.
This resulted in an argument between Grant and the VC’s sister, during which Grant denied the allegation.
The VC’s sister asked someone to keep an eye on her sister for the remainder of the journey.
On returning home, the VC reported the incident to her mother, who took her to the police the following day and filed a report.
Grant was located on Sept. 17, 2024, and was cautioned and interviewed. He denied the allegation, but was arrested and charged.
At Friday’s sentencing, Justice Burnett established a starting sentence of four years and six months — 45% of the maximum sentence of 10 years.
He noted that the victim was under the age of 16 and that there was a verbal altercation in her presence involving her sisters and other passengers, in public.
The judge also pointed out that Grant had touched the child on her vagina, the assault having moved from her leg.
He also noted the significant disparity in their ages, with Grant being 31 years older than his victim.
Aggravating of the offence was the lack of voluntary cessation even after the VC placed the bag between her and Grant in an attempt to stop the assault.
The court saw no mitigating feature of the offence and therefore increased the sentence by six months.
The court said that Grant was of good character at the time of the offence, having had no previous convictions, which was a mitigating feature.
The court saw no aggravating features of the offender and held that the mitigating features outweighed the aggravating.
The sentence was therefore reduced by two years.
Grant had spent 3 months and 19 days on remand. When this was deducted, Grant was ordered to spend a further two years, eight months and 11 days in prison for indecently assaulting the child.
On the charge of indecency with a child, the judge also established a starting point of 45% of the maximum, or 4 years and six months in prison.
Among the aggravating features was that the offence was committed in the presence of others, in that Grant exposed his penis in a public moving vehicle.
The judge held that the aggravating features outweighed the mitigating factor and increased the sentence by three years.
There were no aggravating features of the offender and his good character was a mitigating feature, leading to a reduction of two years.
After the time spent on remand was deducted, Grant was left with a sentence of four years, 2 months and 11 days.
The judge held that both offences arose from a single act of criminality and ordered that the sentences run concurrently.