A High Court judge in St Vincent has jailed a 36-year-old man for one year after he was convicted of forcing his ex-girlfriend to go naked in public and threatening to rape her if she did not follow his demand more than four years ago.

Justice Brian Cottle in imposing the sentence on Levorn Williams told the accused that “on that day, you behaved very, very bad”.

The judge told Williams that “things could have turned out a lot worse for you had the jury returned a verdict on the other offences for which you were charged”.

After Williams serves the prison term for abduction, a further sentence of 11 months and 20 days in jail will be suspended for one year.

The court heard that on August 30, 2015, Williams attended a high school reunion which was also attended by his former girlfriend. At the end of the event, Williams agreed to give the woman and two other schoolmates a lift, as their arranged transportation did not show up.

But after dropping off the two other people, the accused refused to take the woman home even after she made repeated requests for him to do so. The Court heard that there was a confrontation between the two and Williams told the woman to take off her clothes, which she did. Williams indicated to the woman that he would rape her if she did not run. The woman ran out of the vehicle naked in an effort to escape Williams, who later drove away, leaving the woman naked and distressed. Williams was subsequently arrested.