Sexual offences involving children dominate Demerara Criminal Assizes

…state of affairs an extremely disturbing trend – CCJ

Over 100 accused persons, predominantly men, are scheduled to face a judge and jury on a total of 178 counts of varying sexual offences committed against under-aged children when the Demerara Criminal Assizes opens on Tuesday, October 6, 2020.

It should be noted that sexual offences including those committed against children and adults account for close to half of the 370 cases listed to be heard, according to the list published in the Official Gazette by the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Judicature.
The sexual offences include carnal knowledge of a girl under 15 years, carnal knowledge of a girl under 12 years, buggery, rape, indecent assault of a male, sexual activity with a child family member, sexual activity with a child by abusing a position of trust, sexual assault and incest by a male.
In some cases, more than one person has been indicted for an offence. In other instances, an accused has been indicted for up to eight counts of rape of a child under 16 years.

Section 10 (1) of the Sexual Offences Act of 2010 states, “A person (“the accused”) commits the offence of rape of a child under sixteen years of age (“the complainant”) if the accused – (a) engages in sexual penetration with the complainant or (b) causes the complainant to engage in sexual penetration with a third party.”
Subsection (2) adds, “It is irrelevant whether at the time of the penetration the accused believed the complainant to be sixteen years of age and over.”
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack had revealed that the most prevalent offences dealt with by her office is that of rape of a child under 16-years-old where there is penetration; sexual activity with a child where there is no penetration; sexual activity with a child family member which includes both penetration and no penetration; sexual activity with a child by abusing a position of trust and rape of adults.

The DPP had disclosed that in the majority of the cases, the perpetrators are men, while the virtual complainants are girl children. The DPP further stated that the chambers rarely receive files in which the perpetrators are females. According to Ali-Hack, her office has received files for complainants as young as nine months old. The DPP has continuously lauded the Sexual Offences Courts in each of the three counties for the significant increase in convictions for sexual offences.
Among those to be tried at the Demerara Criminal Assizes are Muslim scholar Neezam Ali, former Bishops’ High School teacher, Coen Jackson and popular transgender personality Otis Pearson. Last year, Ali was sentenced to 45 years’ imprisonment after a jury found him guilty of one of nine indictments for sexual activity with a child by abusing a position of trust.
He was convicted for engaging in anal penetration with one of nine underage boys who took Quran and Arabic lessons from him at a Mosque located on the East Coast of Demerara. The offences occurred between December 5, 2011, and December 31, 2011. Ali has since filed an appeal against his conviction and sentence. He had made a petition for bail pending appeal before the Chief Justice; his application was, however, denied.

Jackson, on the other hand, is accused of having sexual contact with one of his underage students. The incident is said to have occurred at D’Urban Street, Lodge, Georgetown, during December 2010 and May 2011 but as charged a few years later. He remains on $300,000 bail.
Also listed for trial is well-known transgender personality, Otis Pearson, popularly known as “Otisha”. It is alleged that on December 24, 2017, at Station Street, Kitty, Georgetown, Pearson engaged in sexual activity with a boy under the age of 16.
He was arrested after accusations surfaced about him having sexual relations with underage boys. He, too, remains on bail.
The Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA) had assisted the police in the probe and a file was sent to the Office of the DPP which recommended that Pearson be charged.

Disturbing trend
In a judgment delivered in May 2020 in the case of Linton Pompey v the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) of Guyana, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) said that statistics provided to the court show that the offence of having sex with underage children is becoming more prevalent in Guyana.
According to CCJ Judge Peter Jamadar, the statistics for Demerara indicate an increase from 2015, the year in which Pompey was convicted and sentenced for two counts of rape and a count of sexual activity committed against a 14-year-old girl.
Then, he stated, there were 448 indictable sexual offence cases fixed for trial in Demerara, or 50.2 per cent of the indictments so listed. Of this number, 306 (68.3 per cent) were sexual offences against minors.
In fact, with regards to the state of affairs in the county of Demerara, Justice Jamadar underscored that is an “extremely disturbing trend.”
Justice Jamadar pointed out that in Demerara, from 2014 to 2019, on average, out of the total number of criminal cases filed, 54.29 per cent constituted sexual offences cases, and of those, 72.12 per cent constituted sexual offences cases involving minors. According to Justice Jamadar, the percentage of sexual offences cases involving minors as a percentage of all sexual offences cases, has been increasing over time from 2014 to 2019.
Further, he stated that between 2014 and 2016, the number of cases involving minors as a percentage of all sexual offences cases was 67.72 per cent. However, for the years 2017 to 2019, the corresponding percentage was 76.53 per cent. That change represents an average three-year increase of 8.81 per cent (2017 to 2019) over the earlier three-year period (2014 to 2016).
“It is sufficient here to point out that, over the last three years, sexual offences have accounted for more than one-half of all indictable cases set down for trial. Worse, sexual offences against children comprised almost 80 per cent of those cases. In 2019, there were 648 indictable sexual offence cases (ie 56.6 per cent of the indictable criminal list) set down for trial in Demerara. Of those, 488 or 75 per cent were allegedly committed against children,” the CCJ Judge pointed out.

Crisis
The CCJ was keen to note that in Berbice, the trends are indicative of a crisis. According to the regional court, the percentage of sexual offences cases against minors, as a percentage of all sexual offences cases for 2014 to 2019, is as follows: 84.87, 89.3, 94.43, 89.1, 89.03, and 97.27.
The CCJ revealed that the six-year average (2014 to 2019) of sexual offences cases against minors as a percentage of all sexual offences cases in Berbice, is 90.17 per cent. With regards to the corresponding three-year average for 2017 to 2019, it stands at 91.8 per cent.
“Indeed, for 2019 the percentages for progressive Assizes sittings were as follows: February 97.4 per cent, June 94.4 per cent, and October 100 per cent. This is indicative of a crisis,” the CCJ noted.
In Essequibo, the CCJ said that the trends fall between those in Demerara and in Berbice, though closer to those in Demerara. In Essequibo, for the years 2014 to 2019, on average, out of the total number of criminal cases filed, 55.86 per cent constituted sexual offences cases, and of those, 73.86 per cent constituted sexual offences cases involving minors.
For the three-year period 2017 to 2019, the number of cases involving minors as a percentage of all sexual offences cases was 77.8, an increase of 10.88 per cent over the corresponding 2014 to 2016 three-year period (average of 69.92 per cent).
The CCJ highlighted that the percentage of sexual offences cases involving minors as a percentage of all sexual offences cases, has been increasing over time from 2014 to 2019. For the years 2014 to 2016, it said that the number of cases involving minors as a percentage of all sexual offences cases was 67.72.
However, for the years 2017 to 2019, the regional court noted that the corresponding percentage was 76.53. That change represents an average three-year increase of 8.81 per cent (2017 to 2019) over the earlier three-year period (2014 to 2016), the CCJ added.
“What is noteworthy, is that these statistics are only for cases filed and pending in the Guyana criminal justice system. We have no evidence of general reporting statistics, or of under-reporting trends for Guyana for alleged sexual offences against all children, minors and vulnerable young persons,” the CCJ noted.
The CCJ continued, “However, if Guyana follows international norms in this regard for developing societies, such as those in the Caribbean, then, on the basis of presumed under-reporting, the problem likely assumes a magnitude that is endemic, pathological, and potentially destructive of the fabric of Guyanese society.”