Teenager forgives her rapists, asks for reduced sentence for them

THE VICTIM IN an unlawful sex crime case, who was only 12 years in 2014 when she was raped by two men, one after the other, has forgiven the two perpetrators at age 16.

The girl and her mother gave statements for the court in order to help with mitigation for Askey Roberts and Kenny Edwards, the men who had raped her on July 12, 2014.

Attorney for the defendants Duane Daniel read affidavits from the teen and her mother during a lengthy mitigation for Roberts and Edwards, which encompassed the prisoners’ own letters of apology, and the pleas of their grandmothers.

Daniel had earlier informed Justice Brian Cottle, “On Tuesday November 20, 2018, the defendants requested to speak to the virtual complainant and her mother so that they could apologize and show that they have since matured, and were making efforts to do better.”

After this apology, the two had apparently forgiven the prisoners, and were willingly to put this in sworn evidence.

The affidavit for the victim begins, “I am 16 years of age and I make this affidavit with the consent of my mother.”

She stated that the defendants had apologized to her mother first and assured her mother that nothing of the such would happen again, and then they apologized to her. “I forgive both Kenny Edwards and Askey Roberts and I believe that they are truly sorry for the incident. I am aware that they have already spent some time in jail, and I do not wish for them to spend a long period in jail,” she ended.

The teen is said to want to put the incident behind her.

The mother’s affidavit reads, “They reassured me that they would never do anything like that again. I am confident that they have learnt their lesson.”

“Even before I had started the trial I had forgiven the defendants,” she further noted, and she too said that she wouldn’t want the defendants to spend a longer period in jail.

“I understand that they were wrong, but I also realize that they know that they were wrong and they were young boys at the time,” the mother disclosed.

Roberts was 18 years old, and Edwards was 19 at the time the offence was committed.

The 12-year-old girl had been sent to buy something by her mother, and when she got off the bus to walk back home, she passed Edwards’ grandmother’s house where the two were sitting. She saw the two come from the house and walk in front of her talking to each other, but she could not hear them.

While passing a house, Roberts then held on to the girl’s hand and said to her “Girl come geh me sex.” The girl did not respond to this, but Roberts continued to hold her hand and led her under the house they were passing. Edwards stayed near the steps of the house, and appeared to act as a look-out.

Roberts told her to take her pants and underwear off, and she did so. She was also told to bend over some blocks under the house.

Both men had sexual intercourse with her which lasted four to five minutes, and both were said to have used a condom.

Edwards jumped over a wall because the mother of the complainant had entered the yard. The mother also passed Roberts on the steps.

She found her daughter under the house and questioned her as to why she was there but she did not respond. The mother took the girl back home and questioned her again, but it was only when the teen was beaten that she said what had happened.

When the two men were first picked up they denied the allegations.

Counsel Karim Nelson prosecuted for the crown.

Roberts’ and Edwards’ grandmothers both pleaded with the court on their grandsons’ behalf before sentencing on December 7. “Please My lord I don’t want you to send Askey Roberts to that jail. I beg you please my lord, please, don’t not send him to the jail, because if you send him what will become of me?,” Roberts’ grandmother stressed.

The two defendants also wrote letters of apology which they read, which included pleas not to send them to jail.

Justice Cottle went through the assigned sentencing guidelines while determining the appropriate sentence for the two. From this, for the level of offence that it was evaluated as being, the starting point was a jail sentence of four and a half years.

Cottle, in weighing both sides, noted, “I am greatly moved by the fact that the virtual complainant and her mother have seen it fit to forgive you,” but added, “there still remains the fact that you have committed a serious offence.”

“There is a general deterrent element, we must say to other young men who might be minded to interfere with young girls on the street,” that the state would not tolerate that behaviour, Cottle said.

At the end of the legal juggling, the court arrived at a sentence of two years imprisonment.