Appeal Court upholds conviction, sentence of child rapist

Dec 16, 2022 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Court of Appeal on Thursday refused an application to overturn a 30-year jail sentence for Esan Germaine who is currently serving time for raping a 15-year-old girl.

In March, 2022, Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall sentenced him to 20, 25 and 30 years, on three counts of rape, respectively. All the sentences run concurrently and Germaine has to serve 20 years before becoming eligible for parole.

Esan Germaine

Court records state that on three occasions in 2014, Germaine raped the teenager. On the first occasion, Germaine approached the teen and asked her about school, grades, relationship status, and sexual orientation, and he also told her “You know I love you”. The child responded, “I know”, and Germaine then hugged her, kissed her cheeks, and then began to kiss her neck. He then proceeded to undress the child after which he raped her.

On the second occasion, Germaine first laid on top of her touching her private area. He then kissed her on her lips and raped the minor for about 10 minutes. On the third occasion, it was just after mid-night on July 17, 2014, when Germaine first called out for the teen but she did not respond since she knew what he wanted. She was still in bed when she felt a lash on her hand before Germaine dragged her out of bed and again raped her.

On July 23, 2014, the girl was going to the shop when she saw her mother, and confided in her. The mother reported the matter to the police, and Germaine was arrested. In her police statement, the woman said she was shocked at the allegations against Germaine, as she did not expect him to rape her child.

At the appellate court, the convict contested his convictions and sentences on the ground that the Trial Judge misdirected the jury and made several errors in law. Germaine is also arguing that the sentences are manifestly excessive, wrong in principle, and not in keeping with established sentencing guidelines.

Meanwhile, during his trial, Germaine had always denied raping the child. He described the girl as an “unmannerly child”, who was in the habit of misbehaving.

He also claimed he tried to rehabilitate her and put strict measures in place to guide her to be better. These measures, he said, included beating her, talking to her, and sending her to church for counselling.

Back in 2017, Germaine received a 65-year jail sentence after he was unanimously found guilty on three counts of raping another minor. In this case, he was convicted on all three counts of engaging in sexual activity with the child—when she was ages four, six and seven.