A Hendon, Norwood man who admitted to raping a 15-year-old girl after breaking into her home in October last year, was last week sentenced to 25 years at hard labour in the St James Circuit Court.

Damoy Brissett, a 20-year-old unemployed man who the court heard had grown up in several places of safety, was also sentenced to three years for house-breaking and larceny. But he will only serve 25 years, as Justice Martin Gayle ruled that both sentences are to run concurrently.

Brissett, the court was told, broke into the home and later hid in the nearby bushes until the teenager had come from school. He then went back inside the home, held a knife to her neck and raped her.

In handing down sentence, Justice Gayle told Brissett, "every woman possesses certain amount of pride and don't wish for anyone to take advantage of them."

He said, "when men rape women they put them down to the lowest level," adding that when someone breaks into someone's house, then returns and commits rape, that is a very, serious offence. "How could you have done something like that?" he asked.

He stressed that "this kind of behaviour cannot be condoned in our society, rape is a no-no, women must be allowed to walk free".