Fitz-Henley calls for Sykes to speak on sentence given to serial rapist

Calling the 23-year sentence of convicted serial rapist Davian Bryan unacceptable, Government Senator Abka Fitz-Henley has indicated that he wants to hear the views of Jamaica's Chief Justice Bryan Sykes on the sentencing.

“And even as he is vocal about matters concerning the executive and the legislature, as is his right to be, I'd be interested in hearing the views of Mr Chief Justice the Honourable Bryan Sykes on this matter,” Fitz-Henley said.

In his maiden contribution to the State of the Nation Debate in the Upper House on Friday, Fitz-Henley argued that “at a minimum” the sentence handed down to Bryan vindicates the administration's move to amend the laws and impose mandatory minimum penalties, where necessary.

“The state of our nation requires such decisive action by the executive and law-making branches of the Jamaican state. It is we who the people expect to protect them and who they propose to hold accountable,” he added.

After the judgment in late May, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck said the sentence of life imprisonment might have been more appropriate as “Bryan demonstrated, by his own admission, that he is a sexual predator”.

Chuck also reiterated the need, in all cases including where the offenders have pleaded guilty, to consult with victims or their families on a suitable sentence.

However, president of the Advocates' Association of Jamaica, attorney-at-law Leonard Green, said while the minister's view may have been personal, it would have served him better, as the justice minister, to withhold his view.

Justice Courtney Daye, who handed down the sentence on May 31, ordered that Bryan not be eligible for parole until he had served 16 years.

An order was also made for his name to be entered in the sex offenders' registry.

On May 11, Bryan pleaded guilty in the St Thomas Circuit to five counts of rape, one count of grievous sexual assault, three counts of forcible abduction and three counts of indecent sexual assault, which took place in St Thomas in 2021. 

The charges involved the sexual assault on three female children, ages nine, 13 and 16.

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