ROSEAU, Dominica (CMC) – A High Court judge Friday slapped a nine-year sentence on a man who kidnapped a 15 year-old school girl and sexually abused her in 2012.

Webster Edmond, who held the schoolgirl captive for 40 days, had in February earlier pleaded guilty to four of six charges of kidnapping and unlawful sexual intercourse with the minor.

Edmond was jailed for five years and seven months on the unlawful sexual intercourse charge, three years and two months for kidnapping to run consecutively, while he will serve three years and two months on the charge of the possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

The court was told that Edmond kidnapped the schoolgirl, who could not be named or identified, on February 17, 2012 while she was on her way to school. He carried her across the Layou River on his back and took her “in the wilderness” high up in the mountain of Layou.

Police later captured Edmond on March 28 and he led them to the schoolgirl who was found underneath a tarpaulin in the Hillsborough area, with the “same school skirt as when she went missing”

She told the court that she still has nightmares of the ordeal, has had to visit the psychiatric unit several times and is often ridiculed at school.