Ronnie Cameron Peters aged 22 of Woodford Hill can count his “lucky stars” after he was given a suspended jail sentence for 2 years and 10 months after he pleaded guilty to “unlawful sexual connection” with a 14-year-old girl back in 2019.
The facts of the case
The young school child who is a friend of Peters was walking home from school when she was joined by him and after arriving at a certain location, he pulled behind an old vehicle and put his hand under her dress touching her private part. She started to scream but he put his hand over her mouth and threatened to “kill her” if she continued to scream. In the process, she bit his hand.
She asked him to stop his behaviour which he did, and she continued her journey, but he followed her and again grabbed her and pulled her behind and dump truck, and placed his finger in her private part. She called him “rapist” and he said, “long I want to rape you.” He started to choke her and asked her to remain silent.
On arrival home she reported the matter to her aunt, the police were summoned, and she was taken to a doctor, was medically examined and her hymen found to be “intact.”
He was arrested and charged and on March 16, 2022, pleaded guilty to the charge of unlawful sexual connection and was remanded until sentencing.
A Social Inquiry report was commissioned, in the report, found that the young child because of the incident “felt demotivated at school, her grades dropped, and whenever she would see Peters, she would go into a frightening mood.”
He also expressed remorse for his actions and wanted to apologize to the victim if given the chance and, after the incident stated, “why did I do that.”
Sentencing
In considering an appropriate sentence, Justice Wynante Adrien Roberts said under the law the maximum sentence carries 14 years in jail, and threats and violence were issued and the court’s starting point was 45% of the maximum sentence. That brought it to 6 years and 3 months and given that he had previous convictions of a violent nature she added six months to that sentence.
For his early guilty plea, he also got a reduction of 2 years and his mandatory 1/3 reduction which brought it to 3 years 2 months. He was handed a further four months reduction for his time spent on remand after his guilty plea. The Judge also stated that the State and defense counsel (Peter Alleyne) both asked for “a suspended sentence” and while she was of the view that the offense warranted a “custodial sentence” she had to look at all the sentencing guidelines and the law.
The court she told him took a dim view of his actions which was a “breach of trust”. The Social inquiry report stated that he was the breadwinner of “an impoverished family, his mother had suffered two strokes, he just had a six months old baby girl and was not a risk to the community and the victim.”
“This is your second chance, you will not get a third, what you did to this young lady was terrible, she was your friend, and you used to accompany her to the beach, this was a significant breach of trust on your part,” the Judge stated.
“The sentence of the court is a suspended jail sentence of 2 years, 10 months…this is a child, your friend, you are lucky, next time you won’t be,” she said.
On that slave plantation mentality island has alot of pedophiles and rapists; from those in the governance to those in the electronic media, to the last ordinary man! Not a safe island to raise children! Is it why the one-man rogue regime chose to have his children born in the USA and builds huge walls around his houses?
Can sombody please tell me what is really going on in our country when it comes to our kids safety
Look coshoni. Failing the young women
These sentencing guidelines are ridiculous! They can end up not delivering justice as in this case
Early guilty plea? After denying his actions for two years? This happened in 2019 yet he finally pleaded guilty in 2022. What is an early plea? Anytime before 3 years? He nearly raped the child and threatened her. Now he has a child unfortunately and want to use that and other situations as a cry of pity? Shame on the so-called justice system!
This is an unacceptable sentencing. This pathetically lenient sentencing is endorsement of rape culture …. Here, the abuser performed digital penetration (battery), had clear intent to rape, with threatening of life (“I will kill you if you continue screaming”), and chocking (battery). I would like to ask the rapist, Do you know what it’s like to be violently choked, threatened and sexually violated??? . the psychological burden and physical trauma of the victim… Is she being taken care of??. Has she received psychological consultations?… like what the hell?? And you’re telling me he got a “suspended” sentence ??..
Why doesn’t he also receive mandatory psychiatric consultations throughout that sentencing??… He said, “he didn’t know why he did that” (which I personally believe is a weak lie) …Maybe he is a pedophile in the making?? Psychiatric review will help in discovering “the why”… But he just gets a tap on the wrist??? No wonder this is so rampant in our country… they know the sentencing is so laughable in reference to sexual assault.. No man, Justice Roberts, all you have to do better than that… Justice wasn’t served in this case.
And did this case take so long to call? Sexual assault isn’t seen as urgent a case in Dominica???…… 2 years?… What has he been doing those 2 years?.. you know if there are other victims too afraid to speak up?… you can’t say he isn’t a threat to the community, his daughter neither the victim until he proves such… And stop calling him a friend of the victim… The moment he decided in his head “(“so long he wanted to rape her”) he didn’t consider her a friend..
It’s like the judge herself not reading between the lines of what the victim and this man we’re saying, How then could she give proper sentencing?
I’m, and the entire country, Fedup of this sh*t… The entire system need a revamp on all levels beit political, judicial, socioeconomic, cultural (because this type of sentencing is endorsement of rape culture), educational, health… Everything… And everyone needs to participate..
And I would like everyone to know, that a girl or woman who is a virgin can still have an “intact” hymen after suffering penetrated rape. Whether or not it is ruptured/broken/torn depends on many factors such as, the type of hymen the victim has (yes, there are different types. Go look them up.), force of penetration, object or body part used to penetrate, duration of penetration, etc cetera.
In conclusion Sexual assault is a heinous crime and should be treated as such.. Sexual assault of minors, both males and females, is even more heinous as children make up the literal fabric of the future of your nation… The seeds of the future… What type of society do you hope to have if these criminal acts and other perversions persist and grow??… None… The country would become an unrecognizable wasteland… More and more families will become unstable or non-existent…The incidence of other types of violence will rise such as suicide, and murder… The incidence of psychiatric diseases will rise… The sense of social safety between individuals will dissipate because trust between the people would have been lost, and other criminal acts will be “normalized” in order for the individuals to survive, but they won’t thrive… Extreme poverty will ensue… The people will become hopeless, and any human being who has lost hope has essentially become a type of zombie…. Is this the dystopia we hope for in our little Dominica?… I hope not…The time is now….The entire system needs a revamp on all levels beit political, judicial, socioeconomic, cultural, educational, health… Everything… And everyone needs to participate.. No “colours”, no bullsh*t… Just Dominicans coming together to prioritize what’s right for our people collectively.