WESTMORELAND, Jamaica — The unavailability of key reports that will guide the court in sentencing a teenage boy found guilty of raping, buggering, and strangling to death a nine-year-old girl in 2018, has forced a two-month delay.

When the matter was called up in the Westmoreland Circuit Court a short while ago for sentencing, Supreme Court Judge Courtney Daye was told that the psychology and psychiatric reports were not ready.

The court was told that the reports could be ready for a date in September.

The court is currently on a break.

A six-member jury found the 18-year-old guilty on July 1. His sentencing was scheduled for today to give the court time to be guided on the issue of the death penalty, which the law prohibits from being applied to a child. The boy was 13 at the time of his vicious attack on the girl, whom he knew.

During his trial, the court was told the boy sexually assaulted and killed the child after she accepted his invitation to pick apples as they walked home from school on June 5, 2018.

Her body was found near a guava tree, which is about 15-20 feet from the apple tree. A post-mortem report presented in court showed that the child died of asphyxia caused by manual strangulation. She also had lacerations of the vagina and anus.

More details soon.

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– Anthony Lewis