A St James taxi operator, who pleaded guilty to abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl and a 22-year-old woman at gunpoint, had his sentences reduced by the Court of Appeal, which agreed with him that the penalty imposed had been excessive.

Oneil Murray, a married father of five children, was sentenced in the Western Regional Gun Court on May 20, 2010 to five years’ imprisonment for illegal possession of a firearm and 23 years with hard labour for rape, in relation to the assault on the 12-year-old.

Regarding the attack on the woman, Murray was sentenced to five and 19 years’ imprisonment, respectively, for illegal possession of firearm and rape.

The sentences were to run concurrently, meaning that the St James resident would spend 23 years in prison.

In passing sentence, Justice Almarie Sinclair-Haynes characterised the first incident as not only an “egregious violation of a woman’s right… [but]… a breach of trust”. Regarding the second incident, the judge observed that, although the 22-year-old complainant was “a little older”, rape is “…still an awful offence”.

Before sentencing, Murray’s wife of five years gave character evidence on his behalf, describing him as a “nice person”, both to her and “to the people dem in the area”. She said she didn’t know the applicant to be “capable of such things, and asked the court to “give him a second chance that he will turn over his life to God and come back and look after his children”.

Murray had abducted the 12-year-old on the morning of March 19, 2009, after she took his cab en route to school. “Ah tek weh yuh jus get tek weh,” he told her when she noticed he was going in a direction away from her school. The second incident occurred the following month on April 14. The victims were threatened with death if they talked.

On 15 July, 2013, a single judge of the appellate court refused Murray’s application for leave to appeal against these sentences.

He later renewed the application, which was heard in March and April of this year, and a ruling made in May. In ruling in Murray’s favour, the court, comprising of Justices Dennis Morrison, Marva McIntosh and Acting Justice of Appeal Ingrid Mangatal, ruled that the sentences were excessive in light of the fact that the confessed rapist pleaded guilty.

The court then set aside the sentences of 23 years and 19 years’, replacing them with sentences of 18 and 15 years’ imprisonment for the rapes. He will only serve 18 years behind bars as the sentences are to run concurrently.