No ease-up for convicted serial rapist
Published:Saturday | April 4, 2026 | 10:33 PM
A convicted serial rapist who carried out a string of brutal attacks on multiple victims, including an eight-year-old who was sodomised, will remain behind bars for 40 years after the Court of Appeal upheld his sentence while correcting key legal errors.
Patrick Green was sentenced to a total of 40 years’ imprisonment for raping seven victims in three separate incidents, with five complainants involved in the first incident.
The serial rapist, who had appealed his 35-year rape sentence on grounds including that it was harsh and manifestly excessive, had suggested 24 years.
Green, who had pleaded guilty to 23 counts, including rape, forcible abduction, buggery, grievous sexual assault, illegal firearm possession, and robbery, was sentenced in March 2015 in the Western Regional Gun Court to 35 years in prison for five counts of rape on the first and second indictments and five years in prison for rape on the third indictment. The sentences for rape on the first two indictments were to run concurrently but consecutively to the sentence on the third indictment.
However, in a judgment delivered on March 27, the court affirmed the sentences, ruling that the penalties were neither excessive nor wrong in principle, given the severity and scale of the offences.
The panel, comprising Justice McDonald-Bishop, Justice Simmons, and Justice Vivene Harris, pointed to what it described as a sustained, calculated, and brutal pattern of abuse carried out over a two-year period between 2012 and 2014.
The victims were forcibly removed from their homes or coerced and taken to isolated areas where they were sexually and grievously assaulted at gunpoint.
In the first incident, which occurred at 10 pm, on September 24, 2012, in Irvin, St James, Green and an accomplice, who were masked and armed, invaded the home of five victims in St James. The females, aged 8, 14, 16, 23, and 28, were abducted, tied up, and subjected to rape, sexual assault, and robbery, with some assaults carried out in front of others or in bushes.
Two brothers were initially charged for the attack but were later freed after DNA tests did not return a match.
In the second incident, on New Year’s Day in 2014, sometime after midnight, a taxi was hijacked at gunpoint, and the driver and a female passenger were restrained and taken to a remote area where the woman was raped, and both victims were robbed.
In another incident, on December 8, 2013, a woman was on her way home from church in Montego Bay when Green and another male, both armed with guns, accosted her. She was pulled into nearby bushes, robbed, and sexually assaulted.
Green was arrested on January 7 and was subsequently charged after a DNA sample implicated him in all three incidents.
According to the judgment, the youngest victim said she “felt like crying, but did not cry out of fear that the man would shoot her”, while the 28-year-old said during the horrifying ordeal, one of the perpetrators walked on her back and said “mi over you now, mi can do anything”.
The court noted that the offences were marked by extreme violence and humiliation, including rape, oral sex, and other sexual acts carried out in the presence of co-offenders.
Attorney Oliver Clue, who represented the serial rapist, argued that the 35-year sentences for rape were manifestly excessive and that the judge had failed to follow the prescribed sentencing methodology established in Meisha Clement. He also posited that the judge had failed to properly account for his client’s guilty pleas and pre-sentence custody.
Clue suggested a starting point of 30 years, with the sentencing moving up to 42 years after applying the calculation for the aggravating and mitigating factors. However, he recommended a discount of 42 per cent, thereby giving his client a sentence of 24 years.
The Crown, represented by Latoya Bernard and David Bowes, however, maintained that the sentences were appropriate given the severity and traumatising nature of the offences and the appellant’s extensive record of similar crimes. They conceded, however, that the judge had erred in not crediting the offender for time spent in custody.
The Court agreed that, while the sentencing judge addressed key factors such as the aims of sentencing and the nature of the offences, he failed to adequately explain the reasons for choosing determinate sentences over life imprisonment and, more importantly, neglected to stipulate the mandatory minimum periods before parole eligibility as required by law for rape and grievous sexual assault offences. The appellate court, however, ruled that the judge had in fact given the offender a discount by handing down a determinate sentence instead of life, which would have been appropriate given the egregious nature of the offences.
After a detailed review, the appeal court judges established that the sentences for rape warranted a starting point not less than 40 years, given the grievous aggravating factors, including the appellant’s 23 prior convictions for similar crimes, the horrific circumstances involving multiple victims, some minors, and use of weapons, along with the fact that he was mentally unstable, had a mental condition that caused him to be dangerous, and was a danger to the public.
“The circumstances of this offence warranted a sentence outside of the normal range,” the panel said, adding that “a sentencing range of anywhere from 35 years to life imprisonment” was appropriate.
Consequently, the sentences imposed for rape on the first indictment were adjusted to 35 years’ imprisonment, with parole eligibility after 32 years for counts involving minors and 30 years for counts involving adults.
Similarly, minimum terms for grievous sexual assault were stipulated, requiring Green to serve 11 years in respect of the counts involving the two adults and 13 years for the counts involving the minor before being eligible for parole.
The judges also found the 15-year sentence for buggery exceeded the statutory maximum of 10 years and accordingly reduced it to 10 years.
Regarding the second indictment, the court of appeal upheld a 35-year sentence for rape with a parole eligibility period set at 32 years, and a 13-year minimum term for grievous sexual assault, correcting the omission made by the sentencing judge.
The judges further ruled that the sentencing judge erred by failing to credit the appellant for 11 months spent in custody prior to sentencing and corrected this oversight insofar as the first indictment was concerned, based on submissions by both parties.
While recognising that the five-year sentences for rape and grievous sexual assault on the third indictment were below the statutory mandatory minimum, the court of appeal refrained from altering the sentences in the interest of justice, noting that the appellant did not actively pursue an appeal on these counts and that increasing them would be unfair without proper notice.
According to the judges, there were no “justifiable reasons” to disturb the sentences.
Before being sentenced in 2014, Green, who hailed from Clarendon and was 28 at the time, was in December 2014 sentenced to a total of 83 years in the Clarendon Circuit Court with eight additional counts of rape, two counts of robbery, two counts of forcible abduction, eight counts of illegal possession of a firearm, and two counts of grievous sexual assault. He was ordered to serve 30 years before he becomes eligible for parole.