…ordered to serve 45 years before parole eligibility
Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry on Tuesday sentenced a former suicide/HIV counsellor, Milton Kewley, to life imprisonment for the rape of a 13-year-old boy that was left in his care. The Judge ordered that the offender serves 45 years imprisonment before being eligible for parole.
The Sexual Offences Court Judge told the father of three that his acts were abominable and also found him unremorseful. In computing the 45 years he was give; 10 years were given for the child’s age, 10 years for his breach of trust, 10 years for the violation imposed, 10 years for the physical, psychological and emotional trauma the boy faced and five years for his lack of remorse. Justice Sewnarine-Beharry considered the prevalence of such acts in society and said the offender at the time he committed the act was 45 – 32 years older than the teenager.
“This court noted that the accused was a former Policeman and a Suicide/AIDS counsellor; your responsibility entailed the spiritual upliftment and development of the child,” the Judge told Kewley.
The case’s evidence found that he lured the boy to try on some clothes in a bedroom and thereafter kissed the young boy, put him on the bed and then committed the penetrative acts for five minutes on August 22, 2013.
It was related that the young boy did not say anything at that point and Kewley was said to have attempted a similar attack three months later in October but the teenager fled and reported him. The lad had testified that the rape is as vivid now as it was five years ago.
The offender nevertheless maintained his innocence, saying that the entire case was a fabrication. When he addressed the court on Monday, he claimed that the boy’s mother threatened him several times.
Despite these claims, the Judge revealed that Kewley’s defence, led by attorney Maxwell McKay, never put forward during trial that the lad’s mother threatened to set him up.
Kewley was found guilty by a 12-member jury on Monday and after Justice Sewnarine-Beharry passed sentence on Tuesday, his relatives said the outcome was unfair. The offender was earlier allowed to shield his face but he was handcuffed.
The victim and his mother were present at the sentencing. State Counsels Lisa Cave and Orinthia Schmidt prosecuted the case.