By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Court Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A PROSECUTOR said that a father convicted of two counts of incest against his daughter should face 20 to 30 years in prison.
These remarks came during the man’s sentencing hearing in the Supreme Court yesterday.
The 48-year-old convict, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of the victim, is represented by Murrio Ducille, KC, before Justice Guilliminia Archer-Minns.
He was present for the reading of his probation report.
It was in this report that his daughter said that he had done the “unthinkable” to her when he forced her to have sex with him when she was only 15 and 16 years old. She further said that she wishes for her father to suffer for his actions against her, which occurred in 2015 and 2016, so that he cannot hurt anyone else.
During Mr Ducille’s remarks after the probation report was read, he said that his client is not beyond redemption. The attorney went on to say that the two months his client has spent in prison following his conviction has had a “devastating” impact on him, even saying that it has left the father “fragile”.
Mr Ducille then urged the justice not to destroy his client, but to use her discretion in regard to his sentencing.
Basil Cumberbatch, assistant director of public prosecutions and prosecutor in this case, countered this argument by saying that the victim in this matter is herself “fragile” from her ordeal. He then explained that she had to relive the trauma her father put her through in what he called an “abuse of a position of trust” during this trial.
In addition to citing the convict’s decision to not plead guilty to spare his daughter a trial, Mr Cumberbatch called the incest charges akin to rape. As such he told the justice that a 20- to 30-year sentence would be appropriate in the dispensing of this matter.
Justice Archer-Minns is set to deliver her sentencing on the matter on February 16, 2023 at 2pm.
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