British Virgin Islands newspaper: Guyanese JW molester gets jail/fine

[Jack Ryan]

 

Oliver Lewis, a Guyanese native who was found guilty of six counts of gross indecency with a 13-year-old boy, has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.

He also has been ordered to compensate the family of the victim $10,000 or spend an additional six months in prison.

Elaborating on the compensation order, Magistrate Ayanna Baptiste DaBreo stated that it is for the victim to get counselling as a result of the ordeal he faced.

She made it clear that: “No way is this court saying that any monetary sum can make up in any way for the [offences].”

Breakdown of sentence

The magistrate handed down a prison sentence for each count of the offence.

When those sentences are combined, Lewis would have served a prison term of 162 months (13 and half years).

A break-down of those years is as follows: 12 months for the first count; 18 months for the second count; 24 months for the third; 30 months for the fourth; 36 months for the fifth; and 42 months imprisonment for the sixth count.

But the Magistrate ordered that the sentences run concurrently (at the same time). Effectively, this means Lewis will only spend 42 months in prison.

He will only spend an additional six months if he does not compensate the family of the victim.

‘Prison is not for me’

Before hearing the judgement, Lewis – who has been in custody since December last year – told the court that prison is not for him.

“Throughout my entire ordeal in prison, it was not a good experience. Prison is not for me… [and] I’m sorry for wasting the court’s time.”

Lewis – who the court heard is a Jehovah’s Witness – also added that he was praying for the court and the family of the young victim.

During the trial last year, the boy’s father stated that he knew Lewis, as they both were members of a Jehovah’s Witness Church.

He said they were friends for about three years.

The father told the court that Lewis became a friend of his 13 year-old son, and would often pick him up from school to take him on various job sites.

He added that Lewis would explain to him that he was giving the boy job training, and that he (Lewis) needed the help.

The father also told the court that he trusted Lewis and never expected ‘anything like that (molestation) to happen’.

The father said he started to realize that something questionable was taking place between Lewis and the boy after the boy and one of his brothers had a dispute and certain things were said.

“[My son] told me everything that was going on between him and Mr Lewis,” added the father.

Some days later, the father confronted Lewis and told him he knew what was going on.

According to the father, Lewis asked: “Can you forgive me?”

Describing Lewis as a psychopath, the father further told the court that he (Lewis) wanted them to treat the matter as one that could have been settled religiously.

He however opted to take the matter before the court, noting that a crime was committed against his son.

END OF ARTICLE - Comments are interesting.

http://bvinews.com/new/lewis-gets-42-months-for-molesting-boy-to-pay-10k/