50 years for child rapist

Sep 23, 2011 News

In a landmark judgement, Justice Winston Patterson yesterday sentenced a 58-year-old man to 50 years imprisonment for the rape a 14-year-old girl.
Tyrone Mortley, of Bee Hive, East Coast Demerara, was determined to be guilty by a mixed jury after a week-long trial. The verdict came back after approximately two hours of deliberation in the proportion of 10-2, of guilty on two counts of carnal knowledge.
He was sentenced to 25 years on each count. The sentences will run concurrently.
Mortley was charged with carnal knowledge of a girl under the age of 15 years committed between April 1 and 31, 2006, when the victim was 14 years old, and was indicted on a second count of carnal knowledge of a girl between 15 and 16 years old, committed on the same victim, just after her 15th birthday, on October 28, 2006.
Five witnesses were called by State prosecutors Judith Gildharie-Mursalin and Teshana James-Lake.
The victim herself, now 20, testified that Mortley was known to her for more than 10 years, as he was her father’s friend and a daily visitor to their home. During April 2006, she had gone to fetch water from a tank situated in a bushy vacant lot, when Mortley called for her and she went to where he was, close to a coconut tree.
Mortley asked her if she ever had sex and when she said no, “he said he gon try it.”
He committed the first act on the victim, after which he threatened to kill her if she told anyone. He also gave her $1000.
She told the jury that she did not tell anyone because she was threatened, and was also afraid because on previous occasions when Mortley had said inappropriate things to her, such as, “Yuh getting thick,” or “After 12 is lunch” and she had complained to her father, she was beaten by her father because Mortley claimed she was lying.
On October 28, 2006, Mortley went to their home with a water pump and asked the victim to change the adaptor, which she did. She and Mortley were upstairs in the house at that time and he lifted her up, placed her on a table in the kitchen and raped her a second time. Her efforts at fighting him off were futile. When he was finished, Mortley told her, “Don’t let me hear nothing ’bout this.” Once again he gave her $1,000.
The court was told that on December 26, 2006, the victim began suffering from abdominal pains and bleeding. She was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital where she was examined and diagnosed as being nine (9) weeks pregnant. She was hospitalised for one day.
On December 31, 2006, the victim’s father and Mortley were having an Old Year’s Day drink when Mortley bragged to his friend, “A ketch a fresh meat. A knack down a lil 15-year-old ting”. The victim’s father rushed home and questioned her extensively because “I had to be sure due to the nature of my friendship with Tyrone,” he told the jury.
The father, an ex-policeman, wanted to be certain so he held a confrontation between his daughter and his friend and she repeated what Mortley had done to her. The father handed over Mortley to the police and Inspector Nolan Burnett held a confrontation between Mortley and the victim.
Mortley admitted orally that he had sex with her once. He then agreed to give a written statement. This statement was determined by Justice Patterson to have been freely and voluntarily given, after a voir dire was held to determine same as Defence Counsel Compton Richardson had objected to it.
Following the verdict, Justice Patterson asked Mortley if he had anything to say and he responded, “I am innocent.”
Justice Patterson responded, “You have been defrocked of that innocence. A jury of your peers has found you guilty. You are barefaced.”
“Look this family is here; your friend is here. You should tell them how sorry you are for destroying this young girl’s life. You were like a father to her, loco parentis, as we say in law,” the judge said.
Justice Patterson further lamented the fact that the defendant took advantage of the relationship he shared with the victim’s father.
“You were a beast….you set this child up for the kill because you turned her father against her first so when you made your move, he would believe you.”
Mortley’s reputed wife broke into tears when the sentence was passed.
The victim’s mother also broke into tears but it seemed those were tears of relief and joy that justice had finally been served.

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50 years for child rapist

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