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alexk
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A 36-year-old man has been sentenced to a little over 11 years in prison for raping his 14-year-old girl over a decade ago.
While Peter Andrew Davis was convicted of the offence in May, High Court Judge Gillian Lucky yesterday sentenced him to 11 years and seven months in prison for the crime.
During the hearing in the Port-of-Spain High Court, Lucky noted that the maximum sentence for the offence is life imprisonment.
However, she began with a starting point of 13 years in prison but reduced it by a year as Davis had a clean criminal record before the incident and had a positive probation officer’s report on his ability to be rehabilitated.
According to the evidence in the case, the incident took place in May 2006, as the victim was walking near his home to meet her cousin by an arcade.
Davis, who knew the girl and her family for several years, stopped his vehicle and offer to take her for a drive.
When the victim refused, he offered to drop her to the arcade. However, when she got in the car, he drove to a house in Central Trinidad, where he raped her.
After the attack, Davis forced the teenager to have a shower and then dropped her home.
The victim eventually told her mother, who took her to the police to make a report.
Before passing the sentence, Lucky read out a victim impact statement from the girl, who is now 26.
In the harrowing statement, the girl said that she was still traumatised by the incident.
“Although I wear a smile on my face, it is fake. It has also affected my mother. She does not say anything but I know it does. It made me feel it was my fault,” she said as she claimed that she attempted suicide twice.
She also pleaded with the court to pass a stiff sentence.
“I want the court to send a message to men who prey on young aspiring girls. I hope God has mercy on Peter but I believe he should suffer for the way he tricked and forced me,” she said.
The case was prosecuted by Gisele Heller-Ferguson.