Georgetown: A 67-year-old man who claimed his penis is “dead” was on Monday jailed with two life sentences after he was found guilty on two counts of rape of a 10-year-old.
The 12 member jury on July 16, 2018 slapped Abdool Jamil, 67, with two guilty verdicts in the Demerara High Court before Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry in the Sexual Offences Court. His attorney, however, made an application to the judge for a probation report to be prepared and his request was granted.
Returning to court on Monday, Abdool Jamil, of Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara, was sentenced and would be eligible for parole after serving 45 years on both counts.
The pensioner swore before the court that he has erectile dysfunction.
“I am not a rapist. All my life I have never had sex with a younger person, much less a child… I am being charged for penetration of a vagina that I have never seen or touched. Penetrating with a penis that is dead,” the accused said.
But the victim’s impact statement read by Child Link representative, Celeste Mullin, expressed her physical and psychological trauma from the act committed on her.
“I felt bad and upset and was constantly thinking about what happened to me. My grades went down because I couldn’t focus, I kept thinking about it. He was a nice person to me, I liked him. But I no longer do because he violated me and now I am scared. I would like him to be punished. I don’t think I can ever forget this but I pray I can have a normal life again.”
According to the State, for the 1st count, on May 30, 2014 in the county of Demerara, the accused engaged in sexual penetration of a girl child under age 16.
On the 2nd count, on June 2, 2014, the accused engaged in sexual penetration of a girl child under the age of 16.
The State represented by Lisa Cave and Orinthia Schmidt, said the mother of the victim left home for Linden to attend the funeral of her step-father, and instructed her child to do chores after which she should go to a relative’s home to stay until she returned home.
The child did as she was told and was then taken away by the accused to his house where he went into the bedroom where the child was sleeping and raped her on two separate occasions, but on the second, the child ran to the home of a relative and reported what had transpired.
The defence attorney, Clyde Forde stated that the accused was involved in the Community Policing Group (CPG) and protected persons in his community. He was also recently honoured by PAHO/WHO for his work in health services. With that, he pleaded with the judge to temper justice and lenience and grant a reasonable period of incarceration, so the accused can resume the community service to which he has dedicated several years of his life.
However, the judge administered no lenience given the nature of offence, the fact that the accused remains unremorseful and the trauma and scar now left on a child.
The Judge stated that Jamil will serve two life sentences based on the fact that he showed no remorse even after he was found guilty, and the fact that his actions towards the victim will leave scars for a lifetime.
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