KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) – A High Court judge has dismissed an explanation by a 53-year-old man, who pleaded guilty to two counts of raping a 10-year-old girl, that he was pressured into committing the crimes by the child.

Justice Brian Cottle in sentencing Fitzallan Wickham, described his statement as the “Lolita explanation”, as presented in Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “Lolita”.

On the first count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13, the judge sentenced Wickham to 12 years in prison and on the second count, he was sentenced to four years in prison, to commence at the end of the 12-year period.

However, Wickham had spent two years and 13 days in prison awaiting his trial and this was deducted from his sentence, meaning that overall, he will spend a further 13 years and 17 days in jail for his crimes.

During the sentencing phase last Friday, Wickham, who did not have a lawyer, gave a rambling explanation of his action, telling the High Court that he and the child’s mother used to “move good” and the mother used to tell him to give the child something for her lunch.

He said the child’s grandmother also used to tell him that when he sees the child “out the road” to send her home.

By this point, Justice Cottle, who was taking handwritten notes, had stopped and had placed one hand on his cheek as he watched the defendant. He then interrupted Wickham, noting that he had told the court that he had had sex with the child twice and had told the police the same thing in his electronic interview.

He said that the school principal who went on the scene at the abandoned house where the act took place, also said Wickham had said that he had sex with the child. The judge noted that Wickham had also said at the scene that it was the child who has brought the condom to him.

“She brought it,” he said, adding that the sad thing was that he did not report it to the police.

In handing down his sentence, Cottle noted that Wickham was charged with four counts of unlawful sex with a girl under the age of 13 and pleaded guilty to two counts after a jury had been empanelled to try him.

The High Court, therefore, directed the jury to return a formal verdict of guilty on two of the counts and the prosecution withdrew the remaining two counts.

The sexual acts were reported to have taken place in 2018 and on both occasions, Wickham gave her five EC dollars (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents).