Rapist’s premeditated actions punished

Convict Michael Omar Kirton has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for rape and aggravated burglary.

“You are clearly a danger to society and clearly someone who needs to be kept off the streets for a long period of time,” Madam Justice Pamela Beckles said today as she sentenced Kirton alias Spills of Silver Sands, Christ Church, to do time .

However, Kirton has ten years and 70 days left to serve on the sentence, after he was credited with a one third discount for his guilty plea and the 660 days he had already spent on remand.

Kirton was convicted after pleading guilty to entering a woman’s house on September 24, 2016 with intent to rape and having sexual intercourse with her without her consent while armed with a pair of scissors.

It was revealed that Kirton sat on the edge of the woman’s bed as she slept, lit a spliff and when she awoke asked the whereabouts of the man of the house before assaulting her. The rapist continued his conversation with the woman before raping her a second time and as he left her residence he instructed her to close the door behind him, revealed Principal Crown Counsel Krystal Delaney who had urged the court to impose a 25-year starting sentence on the offender.

He was further convicted of entering an apartment in Christ Church and robbing Sloveig Grindalen of two cellular phones worth $3,400 and $150 cash between July 9 and 10,2015.  He also stole a cellular phone worth $750, a pair of glasses and two credit cards belonging to Torunn Bjornson at the same time. He had two knives when he committed the offences against the Norwegian visitors.

In handing down the sentence in the No. 5 Supreme Court this morning the judge outlined the aggravating factors of the offences making it clear that there were no mitigating features.

She pointed to the nature and seriousness of the aggravated burglary, given that Kirton had a weapon at the time; the prevalence of such offences in the society and that the offences took place at the complainants’ residences.

“Their sanctuary was violated by you thereby depriving them of their peace of mind. Your conduct strikes at the very heart of every citizen’s entitlement to feel secure in their own home. Your behaviour shows complete disregard for the privacy, sense of security and wellbeing of each of your victims.

“Your actions were deliberate and premeditated in that you broke into the complainants’ residences with the preconceived plan of burglarizing their homes,” the High Court judge stated.

Beckles also highlighted the fact that one of the aggravated burglary cases was committed against two visitors to the island, although she made it clear that in principle, the punishment for any offence should be the same whether the victim was a tourist or a resident.

“The fact is that tourism is the life blood of the Barbados economy, tourists expect to feel comfortable while in Barbados as our guests. Crimes against tourists must be deterred since they have the potential to do irreparable harm to Barbados’ image as a tourist destination and ultimately to our economy as a whole,” she added.

With regards to the rape of the woman she pointed to the the violation of the complainant’s body and the fact that no condom was used which exposed the complainant to the risk of pregnancy and STDs.

“The fact that the attack of the complainant took place in the sanctuary of her own home in a place where she is entitled to believe that she will be safe and where she should have been safe,” she maintained pointing to the negative impact the incident has had on the complainant and her life as well and the fact that a scissors was in the victim’s line of sight during the ordeal.

The judge then gave a starting sentence of 16 years or 5,840 days in prison for both the aggravated burglary and the rape.

However, she ruled that the aggravating features outweighed the mitigating factors and adjusted the starting sentence upwards by two years.

She also ordered that Kirton, who has 12 prior convictions eight of them for burglary, undergo drug rehabilitation together with other programmes and interventions recommended by the prison psychologist.

The convict was also strongly advised to enroll in any available educational skills or vocational programmes which may assist him on his release.