By Ronalda Luke
A 30-year-old man from a southeastern community in Dominica has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 7 years following his conviction of Unlawful Sexual Connection (USC) of a minor girl.
On March 5, 2024, a nine-member jury returned a 7-2 guilty verdict, finding Loic George guilty of the offense.
According to the prosecution’s case which was led by State attorney Marie Louise Pierre-Louis, between October 31, 2021, and March 1, 2022, George had USC with a girl who was 11 years old at the time.
During a plea in mitigation to the Court, defense attorney Bernard Pacquette who was assisted by Wayne Norde, averred that the now 30-year-old construction worker had no previous convictions and was contrite. Pacquette asked that mercy be extended to his client and a non-custodial sentence be imposed since according to him there was no violence during the commissioning of the offense and there were no significant aggravating factors.
On March 12, 2024, during the sentencing, His Lordship, Justice Colin Williams informed the Court that in determining the sentence, he conducted a computation exercise following the procedures outlined in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court sentencing guidelines for sexual offenses.
In the first step, the Court was required to establish a starting point by assessing the seriousness of the offense, which includes reference to the culpability of the offender and consequences of the offense by reference to the harm caused. Justice Williams determined that this fell within category two, high as the victim was under the age of 16 years.
The second step was to consider the seriousness of the offense by assessing the culpability of the offender which the judge said fell within level A, high, because there was penetration of the vagina.
The maximum sentence for USC is 14 years imprisonment; consequently, the Court determined an appropriate starting point to be 45% of the maximum, equating to 6.3 years.
At the next stage, the sentence was adjusted for the aggravating and mitigating factors of the offense and the offender. Justice Williams highlighted that among the aggravating factors offense, it was perpetrated at the premises of the victim’s mother and George guided the victim away from her mother’s view.
“Children must be allowed to be safe and secure in their parent’s property,” he posited.
On the other hand, a mitigating factor of the offense found by the Court was that George did not use violence.
“When both factors are considered the aggravating factors or the offense outweigh the mitigating factors,” His Lordship stated. Therefore, an additional three months were added which increased the sentence to six years six months.
Regarding the aggravating factors of the offender, the Court found that although George had no previous convictions, and there was no evidence of any sexually transmitted infection passed on to the victim, the significant age disparity was noted, as George was 28 years old at the time, and the victim was only 11.
“Mr. George exerted a negative influence on the victim and conducted inappropriate conversations with a child of tender years,” Justice Williams disclosed. “He continued to communicate unknown to others with the victim for some time using several digital platforms. The evidence at trial was that Mr. George continued to request of the minor that she send nude pictures of herself to him, and he also sent nude photographs of himself to her.”
On the mitigation side, George’s previous good character was highlighted. However, the court stated that the suggestion by the defense counsel of his client’s remorse was unsupported by any evidence. As a consequence of the preponderance of aggravating factors, the sentence was further increased by six months which then stood at seven years.
The next step of the sentence construction required the Court to adjust the figure for a guilty plea, but this was not applicable in this case since a conviction came after a trial.
Therefore, for the offense of Unlawful Sexual Connection against a minor, Loic George was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 7 years.