KINGSTON, Jamaica (Jamaica Observer) – A 30-year-old married man who was caught by the police kissing a 13-year-old schoolgirl in an abandoned building in downtown Kingston, and making plans to have sex was yesterday slapped with a J$150,000 fine when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court.
The man, who had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault, was ordered by Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey to pay J$100,000 or serve six months on the first count and J$50,000 or six months on the second count.
Before the man was sentenced, his lawyer told the court that her client was a devoted Christian and husband of four years who has acknowledged that his behaviour was inappropriate.
he lawyer also urged the magistrate to consider the social enquiry report in which her client was described by members of his community as hard-working and industrious.
According to the lawyer, members of the community said that her client’s behaviour was “out of character.”
But Pusey told the lawyer that her client should be imprisoned for his actions.
“This is the kind of nightmare that most mothers lay in their beds at night worrying about,” she said. “The only thing working in his favour is that she had consented to it and she was not coerced.”
The police caught the man kissing the teen in an abandoned building on Orange Street in May. According to the police, the accused had met up with the teen on previous occasions and had been planning a date for them to have sex.