KINGSTON, Jamaica – The teenage boy convicted of raping, buggering, and strangling to death a nine-year-old girl in 2018 has been sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole after 23 years and nine months.

Supreme Court Judge Justice Courtney Daye handed down the sentence on Friday afternoon, describing as "horrific " the offences by the youngster whom he said allowed himself to be "overcome by this abnormal sexual passion towards a young child".

Daye said he went higher than the 20 years suggested by the Director of Public Prosecutions because of the "gravity " of the offences, the age of the victim and the fact that the defendant showed no remorse.

Allegations are that the boy sexually assaulted and killed the young girl, whom he knew, 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 last week showed that the child died of asphyxia caused by manual strangulation. She also had lacerations of the vagina and anus.

– Alicia Dunkley-Willis