DISAPPOINTED!

A mother whose daughter was among seven children sexually assaulted by 40-year-old Sheridan Shepherd on Friday expressed anger and disappointment after he was given a 17-year sentence with the eligibility for parole after 12 years.

The woman, who The Gleaner will not identify, argued that Shepherd, who is from St Mary, should have been asked to serve “at least 25 years or more” for the crimes he pleaded guilty to.

“Mi nuh feel justified about the sentence because based on the fact that is so much children and is so much cases I was looking for a longer sentence. I’m not satisfied. I’m disappointed,” she told The Gleaner.

“When the man them see six children them a go seh, ‘Yeah man, mi can do mi thing, get that sentence and come out back come do it again’. Them a go continue molest children. So mi feel like him should a get more,” she said.

The woman said her now 12-year-daughter was 10 years old when she was fondled and penetrated by Shepherd.

She noted that her daughter was the one who first reported the assault.

Shepherd was arrested and charged in June 2021, following reports that he sexually assaulted several minors between six and 12 years old.

He had pleaded guilty to six counts of buggery, five counts of indecent assault, and one count of grievous sexual assault.

On Friday, Justice Simone Wolfe-Reece sentenced Shepherd on four indictments.

For the first indictment, Shepherd was sentenced to four years and seven months’ imprisonment at hard labour on three counts of buggery.

For the second indictment, Shepherd was sentenced to 17 years and 11 months imprisonment for grievous sexual assault.

For the third indictment, he was sentenced to 17 years and 11 months each on two counts of grievous sexual assault and to five years and one month for one count of sexual touching.

For the fourth indictment, Shepherd, a father of one, was sentenced to four years and seven months for indecent assault, 17 years and 11 months for grievous sexual assault, and to four years and seven months on three counts of buggery.

The sentences are to run concurrently.

Justice Wolfe-Reece explained to the court that a 25 per cent reduction was applied to the sentences because Shepherd pleaded guilty. His time of one year and eight months incarcerated before sentencing was also taken into account.

He will be eligible for parole after 12 years.

Fear of abuse

During his sentencing on Friday afternoon at the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston, Shepherd’s attorney Christopher Hibbert noted that his client had expressed fear of being incarcerated because of the nature of the crimes he committed.

The attorney stated that it was his hope that his client’s punishment is limited to him being incarcerated and that there is no abuse behind bars.

“Mr Shepherd is asking that some understanding, leniency [and] sympathy can be given towards him,” Hibbert said.

He said that his client was a victim of abuse when he was young, both at home and on the street where he subsequently sought refuge.

He asked that Wolfe-Reece’s sentence be “reasonable”.

But the judge noted that the offences committed by Shepherd were serious not only because they were sexual in nature but because they were committed against children.

She said that it must be made clear that children must be allowed to enjoy their childhood and not be abused.

She said it is “unacceptable” that such offences are commonplace in Jamaica.

Wolfe-Reece dismissed Hibbert’s argument that Shepherd had a difficult childhood, noting that he could not use that as an excuse for wrongdoing. She mentioned that Shepherd not only breached the trust of the minors’ parents but “eradicated” it.

She also chided Shepherd for abusing the trust of the children, which she said he gained through electronics and video games he knew they loved.

“How, how, how can that be acceptable that a man at your age could find yourself in a position to abuse a six-year-old and a 10-year-old ... . We as a country need to indicate that we will not accept that type of behaviour. Our responsibility is to protect the children of this country …” Wolfe-Reece asserted.

Shepherd denied that he used video games as the judge spoke but was countered by the mother of one of the victims.

“Yes, yes, you did,” the mother, who had earlier been brought to tears, said.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com