O’neil Recardo Riley will spend more than five years behind bars at Dodds Prison for kidnapping and endangering the life of a 10-year-old girl.
The sentence was delivered by Justice Christopher Birch in the No. 5A Supreme Court on Friday.
A jury previously found the Kensington New Road, St Michael resident guilty of unlawfully removing a minor from Whitehall Main Road without her consent or the consent of some person legally authorised to consent on her behalf, and unlawfully and maliciously engaging in conduct which placed the minor in danger of death or serious bodily harm, on February 2, 2019.
On the morning of the mentioned date, the girl, who was ten at the time, left her mother’s home in St James to go to lessons in Rock Dundo, St Michael. Her mother placed her on the bus and gave her enough bus fare for both trips. While she was at the tutor’s house, the girl saw Riley come to the residence and have a conversation with the teacher before leaving. When the class was over, the tutor placed the student on a route taxi and paid the driver her fare.
Riley then pulled up behind the van, informing the driver that he knew the child and would take her home. The girl got out of the van and got into the car with Riley.
Riley drove the minor in the direction of Queen’s College via a longer route, causing her to become distressed, and as he slowed down near an area in Wanstead Heights, she exited the vehicle and ran to two people standing nearby. Police were summoned and arrived at the scene along with the child’s mother.
They went to the girl’s home where they saw Riley and the child pointed him out. He replied that he had only been giving her a lift. He was arrested and charged.
The complainant, her mother and grandmother testified that Riley was unknown to them and none of them had authorised him to remove the child from the van.
Giving a starting point of eight years, Justice Birch highlighted the aggravating factors of the offence.
“The aggravating factors are very disturbing, given the circumstances in which the complainant found herself at the literal mercy of the convicted man. He knew or ought to have known that she, as a vulnerable young child, was not able to give consent to go with him. He knew or ought to have known that he had no authority and no reason to remove her from the route taxi . . . . I find these matters to be aggravating based on the deceptive removal of the complainant from the van. I can find no mitigating circumstances of the offence,” the judge said.
Justice Birch noted that while Riley has antecedents, they were not of a similar nature, and pointed out that he had significant potential for rehabilitation and reintegration into society upon release, shown by his employment history. He therefore deducted one year from the starting sentence and another for the delay in the submission of the probation and psychological reports.
The 259 days Riley spent on remand were also taken into account.
“You are sentenced to five years, 106 days for the offence of kidnapping. You are also sentenced to one year for the offence of endangering life, and those sentences are to run concurrently. You are to undergo counselling for your drug abuse while serving the sentence, and you are to enrol in such academic and vocational programmes you may request during your time of imprisonment,” Justice Birch told Riley.
Senior State Counsel Romario Straker represented the State in the matter, while the accused was self-represented.
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