COURTNEY Seymour, the former Jamaica College groundsman convicted for assaulting the teen daughter of another staff member on the school grounds in 2021, has escaped spending time behind bars, at least for now, after being handed a 12 months at hard labour sentence suspended for two years.

It means that if Seymour finds himself in any further trouble with the law during the period of this sentence, he will be taken into custody. The court may at that time order that the suspended sentence take effect with the original term unaltered or it may substitute a lesser term of imprisonment.

The Jamaica Observer was reliably informed that the sentence, which was handed down in the Half-Way-Tree Parish Court on Tuesday, stung the mother of the then 14-year-old child. The Observer was told that the woman broke down in tears and expressed that she was “not happy” with the court’s decision. Efforts by the
Observer to speak with the mother were unsuccessful.

Under Section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Reform) Act, a suspended sentence may be ordered where the court passes a sentence of imprisonment for a term, not in excess of three years for any offence, except where the offence involved the use, or illegal possession of a weapon or imitation firearm.

Seymour, who is in his late 50s, was nabbed by the police last October while at the funeral service of prominent Jamaica College alum. The man, who was originally charged for sexual touching, pleaded guilty to a charge of indecent assault when he was taken before the court. A source told the Observer that the charge was changed to indecent assault as the parish court does not have the jurisdiction to try the offence of sexual touching, and there was an interest in keeping the matter at the parish court level. Sexual touching can only be tried in the circuit court. Indecent assault can be tried by the parish and the circuit courts. According to the sentencing guidelines for parish court judges, in respect of charges under the Offences Against the Persons Act, for matters that go to trial the usual starting point is two years, with the usual sentencing range being between 12 to 24 months for first offences and 24 to 30 months for subsequent offences. Where there has been a guilty plea the usual starting point is 12 months while the usual range is nine to 12 months for a first offence and one to two years for subsequent offences.

According to Observer sources, Seymour carried out the act sometime in May of 2021 while the teen was in a staff area awaiting a family member.

A recording of an encounter said to be between Seymour and the child was obtained by the Observer in which a male is heard asking to be allowed to kiss the child who is heard telling him not to touch her. His advances were at one point interrupted by a cellular phone call, which he accepted, and the shrill ring of the school bell.

The Observer was reliably informed that Seymour, who was dismissed by the school shortly after the incident, was later rehired.

The Jamaica College Board of Management has, however, distanced itself from the former employee following several media reports earlier this year insisting that the school has a “zero-tolerance policy for this type of abhorrent behaviour”.

Jamaica College Chairman Lance Hylton, in a statement to the media in early January, said the school’s principal at the time took “immediate action, advised the mother to report the matter to the police, and provided transportation for mother and child” when told of the incident. Hylton said a “swift resignation” was procured from Seymour after a “strong discussion” with the principal.

In addressing the issue of how Seymour happened to be on the school grounds after that “swift resignation”, Hylton said “the school at no time rehired the groundsman as a member of staff but, over two years after the incident, he was engaged by the maintenance department on some weekends as a contracted casual labourer, to help with clean-up before and after events”.

According to the board chairman, Jamaica College “regretted the fact of the groundsman being engaged” and is implementing more robust measures, to be communicated to all staff, to prevent the presence on campus of persons considered unsuitable.

“We will also review the process of vetting employees to determine whether this area needs strengthening,” he said.

The school, while stating that “any effort that results in justice being done is welcomed”, in the meantime said it is “not aware of any precedent or requirement for a report to have been made to the Ministry of Education in these circumstances as the employee resigned and no student [of Jamaica College] was involved”. The child in question attends a high school in St Andrew.