Court told ‘Devil’ entered child killer’s head

The "devil" entered the head of child rapist and killer, Omar Green, while he was drinking and caused him to commit the cruel acts against his stepdaughter, Nikita Noel.

Nikita, nine, was raped and strangled as she made her way home from Esher Primary School on February 1. Her body was found in bushes near her home.

Green, who confessed to raping and murdering the child, was on Monday sentenced to two life sentences in the Hanover Circuit Court. He must spend 50 years and seven months in jail before being eligible for parole on the murder charge, and 43 years and seven months before being eligible for parole on the rape charge.

In a gripping three-hour sentencing hearing presided over by Justice Courtney Daye, Green's attorney, Albert Morgan, depicted his client as driven by anger towards Nikita's mother, Nordia Edwards, after a confrontation the night prior to the tragic incident that led to the child's death.

"The prelude to this event on February 1, this year, commenced on the evening of January 31, when he went to meet Miss Edwards and was distracted by the sounds of music coming from the yard nearby. And while there she called him, and because the phone wasn't working properly, he couldn't hear her. She was most upset and throughout the night she cursed him. And in the morning when he requested the telephone to have it fixed, she smashed it," said Morgan.

"Prior to the incident he had been drinking, and that is when the devil entered his head and he committed this cruel act on this child, and he exacted his revenge, not on the mother, but upon the young child," Morgan added.

The court was also told of other factors that contributed to the deteriorating relationship between Green and Edwards, including a previous quarrel over money. Green reportedly threatened Edwards with a knife on a previous occasion.

Meanwhile, in a victim impact statement which was read in court, Edwards told of the lingering pain her family was suffering due to Green's crimes against her daughter.

"I still don't feel good since the incident. Every day the incident still stares me in my face ... now the children do not want to stay home if an adult is not there. Omar Green left a scar on the family that will never be removed," Edwards said in the statement.