In a landmark ruling, a Barbados High Court judge has sentenced a 65-year-old father to 13 years in jail after he was found guilty of incest with his 11-year-old daughter in 2011.
Delivering his judgment, Justice Randall Worrell said “Incest is considered a detestable offence which desecrates the sanctity of the home and must attract a custodial sentence as a general deterrent to others”.
Harping on the issue, the judge said that under the law, his daughter’s age at the time of the act made him liable to a sentence of life imprisonment and gave a starting sentence of 18 years.
According to the judge, while the man had only been charged with one count of incest, his daughter had testified that the act was committed on three separate occasions.
Local reports said outlining that as an aggravating feature of the offence, Justice Worrell added to that the victim’s age and the age disparity between her and her father, who was 53 at the time of the offence.
According to the judge, said the court had taken into consideration that no violence was used against the child and that the father had no criminal record. Justice Worrell also took into consideration the eight-year delay in the matter being heard in the High Court as well as the 267 days the convicted man had spent on remand.
More so, the judge also ordered that the father, whose identity was not revealed, undergo psychological testing and counseling while in prison.
Throughout the trial, the man maintained his innocence.
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