Gold miner Sherwin Sharples, 40, who was found guilty last week of raping an 11-year-old girl, was yesterday sentenced to eight years in prison.
The man’s sentence was deferred to yesterday to facilitate the presentation of a probation report. When the case was called, however, Justice Dawn Gregory informed that probation officers were unable to complete the report and were requesting more time.
Justice Gregory said the officers explained that the report would be available by August 14th, but since two of the jurors indicated that they would be out of the country by then, the court noted that it would go ahead and sentence Sharples.
In handing down the sentence, the trial judge took a number of mitigating factors into account, including the age of the convict and that of the complainant at the time the offence was committed.
The judge noted that the child, who is now a teenager, would have to live with the trauma of her experience and that Sharples had exerted “advantage” and “power” over the young girl.
Justice Gregory stressed that the new sexual offences act takes a serious view of such offences, which are no longer seen as merely indecent assaults and now constitute rape. A visibly sombre Sharples urged his sobbing family to “be strong” as he was being ushered out of the courtroom, to be whisked away to prison.
Last Friday, after about two hours of deliberation, the jury returned with a majority judgement of 11 to 1 in favour of the guilty verdict.
The charge against Sharples stated that on June 10th, 2013, at Demerara, he engaged in sexual penetration of an 11-year-old child.
Upon his indictment, the man had pleaded not guilty to the charge of rape of a child under 16 years.
The trial was held in-camera.
Defence attorney Leslie Sobers represented Sharples, while the state’s case was presented by Prosecutors Mercedes Thompson and Michael Sharood.
