Dear Reader,

There is a disturbing pattern of what I am calling “judicial leniency” regarding child sexual abuse cases emanating from our courts that to my mind must now be seriously questioned. While I would be the last person to want to tell our magistrates how to run their courthouses, I am genuinely puzzled and perturbed about the trend that I am seeing.

The latest case of the 12-year sentence, handed down to a man convicted of raping and attempting to murder a 12-year-old girl, has put the issue squarely back on the table once again. Must the decent, lawabiding citizens of the country expect that in fewer than 12 years, the perpetrator of such a heinous crime will be back mingling among us? And what about the victim? What kind of peace and security can the child have, knowing that in no time the monster who raped her, strangled her, and then buried her in a grave leaving her for dead, will be back in her face?

I hear explanations being given regarding first offences and guilty pleas, but so what? While I could support leniency for shoplifting and “bad word cursing”, I do not understand how those legal “technicalities “could apply to a crime such as rape and attempted murder of a child.

What kind of human being brutally rapes a little girl and then buries her in a grave after strangling her? Not only should the man be denied the right to live among normal people for a very long time, but that type of criminal mind must be subjected to intense psychological assessments to understand the nature of the brutality, but more important, to ensure that no other child will be subject to that kind of horror.

I get the feeling that even our judges have become conditioned to the “a no nuttn” mindset. We have become so accustomed to murders in this country, including the murder of children, that an attempted murder is probably no big deal –hence the light sentence applied.

Not only should Justice David Fraser’s verdict be thoroughly reviewed by Chief Justice Zaila McCalla with a view to taking corrective measures, including removal from the bench, but the chief justice should immediately call for an audit to be conducted concerning sentences handed down over the last several years in child sexual abuse cases.

There are several cases that have come to public attention, including the Reverend Paul Lewis’s. There were two other verdicts involving children in recent times. In one case, the accused, after raping the child for three years and threatening her life if she told anyone, got off scot-free after character witnesses vouched for his character. The man did not spend a day in prison. In the other case, the accused child sexual abuser got off on a technicality involving DNA evidence.

What is shameful is that even in the face of the blatant injustices and abuses against the smallest and weakest in the society, namely our children, there seems to be no urgency to introduce mandatory DNA testing, or to correct the possible infractions and biases when DNA testing is admitted into evidence.

I am curious as to whether Justice Fraser in his leniency ordered psychological assessments to be carried out on the convicted man. Do we know if the rapist is a paedophile, and if he is, what type of risks he would pose to children when he is released?

Compare our situation here in Jamaica with the scandal that has generated national attention in the United States involving the sexual abuse of boys by a football coach at Penn State University. The response of the public is exactly what it should be – outrage and action.

Public pressure forced the judge to be removed from the case after she granted bail for the accused, and there are calls up and down the place for legislative reforms to be undertaken. And then a few days ago it was reported that the US Congress is calling for a hearing on the matter. Why don’t we see the same kind of outrage and action here in Jamaica?

It seems clear to me that the answer has to do with class bias. Not only would a judicial audit cast a spotlight on patterns of sentencing, it would also reveal, in the process, a clear socioeconomic imbalance. In other words, most of the cases involve children and families of the poor and working classes who have little or no access to skilful and clever lawyers.

In a society where children are abused and neglected in their homes and communities, our courts should be the one place where they should be guaranteed justice and restitution. When that fails, those of us who genuinely love them are left with no option but to fight back. We believe that “when injustice becomes law…resistance becomes duty”.

bab2609@yahoo.com