High court judge Justice Sarah Thompson-James has said that adult males in St Mary need to be sensitized to understand that children under the age of 16 are protected by the law.
The judge made the comment at the opening of the Hilary Session of the St Mary Circuit Court on Monday, March 13, when it was revealed that of the 52 matters before the courts, by the way of the new Committal Proceedings Act (CPA), 85 per cent are sexual offences matters.
In addition, of the 110 cases down to be to be tried in the session of the circuit, the charge of sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 accounts for the highest number, with 26 cases.
While admitting that it was a “formidable list”, Mrs Justice Thompson-James explained that her concern was the number of sexual offence matters on the list.
“It is saying something that either we are not taking care of our children or we are not teaching them to open their eyes to this thing,” she indicated.
The judge indicated that the church needed to “step-in”.
“St Mary cannot afford to deteriorate as other parishes in the island,” Mrs Justice Thompson-James said, in reacting to a point that had been made by the prosecutor that fewer murder cases had been committed to the circuit court than other parishes.
The other cases set to be heard in the sitting of the circuit that is scheduled to continue from March 13 to March 31 are: murders – 12; rape – 23; sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 – 26; one case each for attempted murder, carnal abuse, buggery and abduction; incest – nine; wounding with intent – four; three cases each for possession of identity information, shooting with intent and illegal possession of ammunition; illegal possession of firearm – 16 and robbery with aggravation – seven.
According to deputy director of public prosecutions, Andrea Martin-Swaby, the parish of St Mary has “experienced the full effect of the Committal Proceedings Act (CPA)” and she indicated that ten additional matters are expected to be committed.
She said that the list may seem to be long, but it will depend on all the stakeholders, including the prosecution, the police and the defense, working together to ensure that matters are disposed of where necessary.
Prosecutor Martin-Swaby also said that the prosecution will also be utilizing the amendments to the Evidence Act that allowed for the agreement of facts that will shorten the number of witnesses called for trials.
Senior attorney Lynval Cummings gave the welcome on behalf of the private bar.
In the meantime, Mrs Justice Thompson-James told accused persons that discounts of up to 50 percent in sentence was available to those who wished to enter a guilty plea at the earliest possible time.
