Manchester man gets life for murder of 11-year-old boy

Kayode Garwood, the Manchester man convicted of the 2011 murder of his ex-girlfriend's 11-year-old brother, Tareek Gregory has been sentenced to life in prison. He must serve at least 26 years before he becomes eligible for parole.

Justice Chester Stamp handed down the sentence in the Manchester Circuit Court yesterday. "You must have a long time to think about what you have done," Stamp told Garwood.

Tareek's sister, Denisha Gregory, in 2014, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Garwood, 28, showed no emotions as Stamp committed him to prison for fatally slashing the throat of Tareek Gregory in Harmons district.

In a statement, which he gave to the police, Garwood said he held the boy's throat and "squeeze ee until him knock out."

"When him knock out, mi tek up di knife and cut him throat, and when time him wake up back, mi hear him a blow. Him could hardly blow," he recounted.

"Denisha come to mi an seh 'him no dead yet', and shi come an give mi one bat and seh mi fi lick him wid it and mi lick him inna him head two time. After, Denisha tell mi seh him nuh dead yet, mi cut him throat again, then mi lick him inna him head wid di baton."

Stamp said there were no words to describe the "unspeakably awful" murder that took place.

NO EXPLANATION

He referred to Garwood's act as callous, cold and pitiless, and added that there was nothing in the social-enquiry report that would even help to explain the reason for such an act.

"You cut his throat and he was blowing and struggling and you went at it again. You covered his face with a plastic bag and when he tore it off you stabbed him and then hit him in the head with a baton ... You showed no mercy!" Stamp said.

Reacting to criticisms about the four-year sentence which Gregory received, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Paula Llewellyn, has said her office would have recommended a longer sentence for Gregory if the law had allowed for her to do so.

She explained that as a matter of law, where there is credible medical evidence showing that at the time of the murder, the accused person was not in a "psychiatrically sound" state of mind, there is clear legal authority that would allow prosecutors to accept a plea of not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.