Court upholds conviction of St Elizabeth man who trafficked, raped Haitian teen

The Court of Appeal on Friday upheld the conviction of Rohan Ebanks, who trafficked a Haitian teenage girl to Jamaica, kept her in servitude and raped her.

At the same time, the court reduced Ebanks' trafficking in persons sentence from 14 years to 10 years imprisonment.

The sentences of 10 years for facilitating human trafficking and 16 years for rape were affirmed.

The sentences on each count are to run from July 17, 2016.

The court is to give its written judgement at a later date.

At the hearing last week, Ebanks' attorney, Donald Bryan, argued that the Crown did not make out a case hence the verdict was unreasonable and conviction should be set aside.

The Crown, represented by Paula Llewellyn, Q.C., Director of Public Prosecutions and Monique Corrie, Crown Counsel (Acting), submitted that there was an abundance of evidence presented before the jury to substantiate the elements of the offences.

The Court of Appeal, comprising Justice C. Dennis Morrison, President, Justice Paulette Williams and Justice Leighton Pusey (Acting), then ordered that the appeal against conviction be dismissed.

Ebanks was found guilty by a seven-member jury in the Supreme Court in June 2016 with Justice Courtney Daye presiding.

His common-law wife, Voneisha Reeves, had previously pleaded guilty to facilitating trafficking in persons and was sentenced to three years, imprisonment, at hard labour, suspended for 18 months.

Facts in the case are that sometime in 2010, the 13-year-old complainant, a Haitian national who only spoke French Creole, was taken from her homeland and transported by boat to St Elizabeth by Ebanks, who was a fisherman and who also spoke French Creole.

He had travelled to Haiti and had spoken to the mother and sister of the complainant and promised them that he would enroll her in school and give her a better life in Jamaica.

The complainant, who was the sixth of nine children for her mother, was taken to Jamaica by boat under this premise.

When she arrived on the island she was housed in St Elizabeth with Ebanks, his common-law spouse and their four children ranging in age from seven years to two months old.

She was forced into servitude, not allowed to attend school, was not taken to the doctor and was not exposed to any other adults aside from Ebanks and his common-law spouse.

The complainant was sexually assaulted by Ebanks when she was 15-years-old and she ran away to the home of his relatives where she relayed her traumatic ordeal.

She was then taken to the police where a report was made and Ebanks and his common-law wife were subsequently arrested and charged.

This is the first human trafficking conviction to be reviewed by the Court of Appeal.

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