St Vincent man jailed for sexually abusing woman during 10-hour ordeal
KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) – A High Court judge in St Vincent has sentenced a 36-year-old bus conductor to more than 13 years in prison after he was found guilty of continuously raping a woman and forcing her to perform oral sex on him during a 10-hour period in 2019.
The court heard that Terrance Dasent, who had been in prison for more than two years, will now serve 13 years and three months in jail and must enrol in any sexual therapy programmes available to inmates.
Dasent would have been spending a much longer jail term had the court not imposed that the sentences for each count of rape run concurrently.
He was sentenced to 2.06 years for abduction, which means that with the sentences running concurrent to that for rape, he has already served his time while he was in custody. The same applied to the indecent assault charges, for which he was sentenced to 162 days in prison on each count.
High Court judge Justice Angelica Teelucksingh handed down the sentences after the court heard that the 33-year-old mother of four children, aged one to 12 years old, first met Dasent in Kingstown sometime before July 15, 2019.
They were not in a relationship, and one day later after agreeing to meet, he committed the acts against the woman. The court heard he had in his possession a knife and threatened to kill the woman, reminding her that he had thrown the bodies of other rape victims over a cliff.
Dasent was arrested on July 19, 2019, and charged with three counts of rape, three counts of indecent assault and one count of abduction. He was initially unrepresented and pleaded not guilty to the charges but changed his plea to guilty after receiving legal advice.
In her sentencing remarks, Justice Teelucksingh pointed out that on May 11, 2022, a social inquiry report said that Dasent comes from a close-knit family but his family said the relationship deteriorated because of his constant lying.
Meanwhile, the victim said she was traumatised by the incident and was unable to sleep at night as she would experience flashbacks.
The judge further said that when the incident occurred, the victim said, “I was fearful for my life. I thought he was going to kill me.”