A St Mary man, who admitted to raping a woman while she walked home alone, was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by Justice Viviene Harris in the St Ann Circuit Court on Wednesday, November 2.
The convicted man is 35-year-old Dwayne Ford of Gayle, St Mary.
It was outlined in court that on July 6, 2015 at about 3:35 pm, the female complainant was walking along the Union and Orange Hill road close to Walkerswood in St Ann. She was later pounced upon by Ford, who held a machete at her throat.
Ford threatened to chop her up if she made any attempts to do anything, but the woman begged for her life and told him that she had a young child. He later carried out his act by having sex with her without her consent.
After the act was completed, Ford robbed the woman of her cell phone and cash and escaped.
The incident was reported to the police and following investigations, Ford was arrested and charged. He also confessed to the raping the woman at that time.
The case was brought by the way of Voluntary Bill to the Circuit Court and, on October 30, Ford pleaded guilty to the charge of rape.
An antecedent report revealed that Ford had 12 previous convictions.
Ford’s attorney had explained to Mrs Justice Harris that his client had pleaded guilty initially, when the matter was first before the Parish Court last year. He further stated that his client had spent a total of one year and three months behind bars, while waiting for his case to be brought to the Circuit Court. He argued that Ford, who had a drug problem, was under the influence of cocaine at the time when he raped the woman.
In arriving at her sentence of 15 years imprisonment at hard labour, Justice Harris explained that she took into account that the accused man did not waste the court’s time and pleaded guilty to the offence.
However, she pointed out that the basis of her sentence arose out of the fact that Ford’s offences were “accelerating” and moved from simple offences of assault to one of rape, where an offensive weapon was used to aid in the act of rape.
Ford will have to serve 12 years in prison before being eligible for parole.
