(Jamaica Observer) The father of the baby who was snatched from Victoria Jubilee Hospital on January 9, 2019, Sinclair Hutton, is dissatisfied with the sentence handed down to the perpetrator yesterday.
Baby snatcher Peta-Gay Ffrench was sentenced to 40 months’ imprisonment at hard labour when the matter was called up in the Supreme Court.
Sinclair, while admitting that he’s happy that the matter is now finished, said: “She should a get more time based upon the evidence.”
He also reiterated that he thinks more people were involved in the kidnapping.
However, the evidence presented before the court did not prove that other individuals were involved.
Ffrench, who is from Harker’s Hall in St Catherine, was taken into custody on February 5 when she turned up at the Registrar General’s Department in Twickenham Park, St Catherine, attempting to register a baby.
A subsequent DNA test confirmed on February 7 that the baby belonged to Hutton and his common-law wife Suzzett Whyte.
Ffrench pleaded guilty to child stealing on July 18.
Prior to the matter being transferred to the Supreme Court, it was said in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court in April that Ffrench lurked at the hospital for almost a month before stealing the child.
According to court documents, Ffrench, who was 27 years old at the time of the kidnapping, was first seen at the hospital by two witnesses on December 10, 2018.
Under Section 69 of the Offences Against the Persons Act, a person who pleads guilty to child stealing could be liable to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding seven years, with or without hard labour.
Meanwhile, social media users had mixed reactions about her sentence.
According to the Jamaica Observer’s All Woman Twitter poll, 36 per cent of voters are of the view that Ffrench should receive psychological treatment instead of a prison sentence, while 33 per cent felt she should have received a longer sentence. Another 31 per cent voted that the prison term was sufficient.
