Fisherman loses appeal against rape sentence
A fisherman who raped a mother and her 14 year-old daughter six years ago lost his appeal against his 20-year sentence on Tuesday.
The Appeal Court, however, showed some leniency to Anthony Lewis, 47, also called “Jah B” and “Baby Boy” of Lot 67, Lime Tree Grove, St Catherine, when it allowed his sentence to start in January 2000, when he was convicted.
Lewis, a father of four children, was arrested and charged with two counts of rape in January 1999. He was convicted in the St Catherine Circuit Court by High Court judge Justice Marva McIntosh one year later and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment. The judge ordered that the sentences run concurrently, which means he would serve only 10 years in prison.
The evidence presented to the court was that on January 17, 1999, at about 10:30 pm the girl and her mother had just returned from church to their one-room board house and after having a meal, heard a voice at the door calling the mother.
They stood on the bed and looked over the top of the door and saw Lewis, whom they knew before. He said he had been stabbed and asked for a piece of cloth to bandage the wound.
They opened the door and gave him the cloth, but he immediately put a knife to the mother’s throat, hit her and pushed her inside.
When she was reluctant to close the door, he stuck the knife in her side, then took turns at raping the 14 year-old girl and her mother in full view of each other. He slept until daybreak, got up at six o’clock and left.
Justices Karl Harrison, Howard Cooke and Paul Harrison, after hearing arguments from Lewis’ attorney L Jack Hines, wasted no time in dismissing the appeal and affirmed the conviction and sentence.
