Absent reports delay sentencing of Westmoreland teen convicted of rape, murder

The absence of a psychiatric evaluation report has delayed the sentencing of the 17-year-old boy convicted of the rape, buggery and murder of a schoolgirl in Westmoreland.

Justice Courtney Daye was also told by Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn QC that a report from a child psychologist was also not ready.

Llewellyn informed that the relevant authorities have assured that both matters will be dealt with in time for the next court hearing.

Daye then adjourned the sentencing to September 16 and also made an order for the matter to be transferred to the Home Circuit Court in Kingston.

The teen was convicted by a six-member jury in the Westmoreland Circuit Court on July 1.

During the trial, the court heard that on June 5, 2018, the nine-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and killed by the teen, who was 13 at the time and who lived near her, after she accepted his invitation to pick apples as they walked home from school. 

The court also heard that the girl died of asphyxia caused by manual strangulation and that she had lacerations to the vagina and anus.

The court had also heard testimony from the head of the DNA unit at the Government's Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine, Crystal Beepot, who provided forensic evidence that material found in the anus of the schoolgirl matched the DNA of the convicted teen.

The evidence was compared with samples taken from his fingernails and underpants.

The teen, in an unsworn statement, admitted that he had sexual intercourse with the girl in her vagina and not her anus.

He said that he was forced to do so after he was held up by two men, one carrying a machete and the other a gun and that he knew one of the men.

- Albert Ferguson

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