Boys sent to prison for disturbing sex act

Five young males who were recently convicted in relation to the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl, which took place in an abandoned building in Spot Valley, St James in 2015, were sentenced when they appeared before the St James Circuit Court yesterday.

The ordeal, which High Court Justice Vivienne Harris described as disgusting, was videotaped and later circulated on the Internet. The five were given reduced sentences because they were all minors at the time of the incident, and because of their early guilty pleas.

"In all my years, I have never seen anything so disturbing. I do not think anybody under the age of 13, or over the age of 13, could have consented to anything so degrading," said Harris.

Hard labour

Those convicted are 18-year-old boys Alex Williams, Sheldon Roberts, Dondre Palmer and Kadean Swaby, and a 16-year-old boy. Four of the boys will spend time in prison for their roles in the incident.

Williams was sentenced to three years' imprisonment at hard labour for having sex with a person under the age of 16, while Roberts, Palmer and Swaby were each sentenced to two years for aiding and abetting.

Palmer was sentenced to three years for possession of child pornography, while the minor defendant was given two years' probation for aiding and abetting, and a three-year sentence suspended for three years for possession of child pornography.