St Peter man to spend five years for raping woman twice

A 22-year-old man who pleaded guilty to raping a woman on two separate occasions will spend the next five years and 121 days behind bars.

Although acknowledging that Kegan Omar Collins of Farm Tenantry, St Peter was said to be functioning at the level of a 14-year-old, Madame Justice Pamela Beckles told him moments before delivering the sentence in Supreme Court No. 5: “That does not mean that you do not know right from wrong.”

Collins had admitted to having unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman on January 27, 2020, and again on February 3, 2020, at the victim’s workplace. 

He had approached the complainant when she was closing up her workplace one evening and offered to help her, and she accepted the assistance as she knew him. 

When they completed the task, Collins hugged and kissed her and when she refused further advances, he attacked and raped her. He then threatened her not to tell anyone. 

A few days later, Collins committed the act against the woman again and she reported it to the police. He was arrested and admitted to committing the acts.

Justice Beckles outlined the aggravating factors of the offence, including that the acts had been committed on two separate occasions; the force Collins had used on the victim, including slapping, punching and choking her; the exposure of the complainant to sexually transmitted diseases and/or unwanted pregnancy as no condom had been used; and the threats used to prevent any reporting of the matter. No mitigating factors were found, but the fact that no weapon was used was noted.

Regarding the offender, mitigating factors included that he had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, his expression of remorse, and his psychological and psychiatric reports showing serious mental challenges. Collins, who had previous convictions, was reported to have a high risk of reoffending.

The judge said that the mitigating factors outweighed the aggravating factors and, therefore, there was a downward adjustment of the 15-year starting point by three years to 12. Collins had spent 974 days on remand.

“Rape is one of the most horrific and dehumanising violations that a person could live through…. The streets, homes and workplaces of a civilised modern society must be safe for all persons. That persons like you who will force and selfishly put your own perverse sexual gratification above the dignity and bodily integrity of another person will be met with years of imprisonment,” Madam Justice Beckles said while sentencing Collins to 12 years before factoring in the deductions.

“You must have known that what you were doing was deeply wrong and harmful but, nonetheless, you went on forcing yourself on the victim on two occasions, ignoring her pleas, raping her and then warning her about telling anyone, even threatening her and then pathetically asking if you could still remain friends. Your impairment does not absolve you of culpability, although it does reduce your level of culpability,” she told the convicted rapist.

Collins has also been ordered to undergo counselling programmes as recommended by the prison psychologist and strongly advised to take advantage of any educational skills training programmes offered. ]]>