Man convicted of sex crime; 15-y-o carrying twins

A man who is believed to have impregnated a minor after a judge ordered him to stay away from her has been convicted on multiple child sex charges.

The 15-year-old victim is reportedly pregnant with twins.

The 37-year-old man pleaded guilty to six counts of having sex with a person under the age of 16 years old in the Trelawny Circuit Court on Wednesday.

He was immediately taken into custody and is to be sentenced on July 15 by Chief Justice Bryan Sykes, who presided over the case.

His name is being withheld to protect the identity of the victim.

The conviction comes two weeks after a Sunday Gleaner report revealed that a staggering 249 girls have been impregnated from rapes, carnal abuse, and other sex crimes between January 2020 and March 2021.

While pregnancy data from previous years were not available for comparison, the figures reveal a slight year-on-year increase in the number of sex-abuse related pregnancies over the first quarter of this year.

Between January and March this year, authorities recorded 60 pregnancies in 274 sex abuse investigations compared with 57 pregnancies from 314 probes over the comparative period in 2020.

Trials of sexual offences in Jamaica are closed to the public.

But according to court documents seen by The Gleaner, the 37-year-old man and the then 14-year-old girl became friends in December 2019.

The friendship quickly evolved into an “intimate relationship”, which continued for “several months”, the documents revealed.

In June 2020, the teen’s grandmother took her to the police and made a report.

A month later, police investigators went to the man’s house and found him and the minor inside, according to the court documents.

He was arrested and charged with “several counts” of having sexual intercourse with a person below the age of 16 years old.

The 37-year-old was offered bail by a Parish Court judge on condition that he reside outside Trelawny and have no contact with the minor or her mother.

However, in April this year, it was discovered that the teen was pregnant and investigations later revealed that he was still involved in an “intimate relationship” with the child.

He was again arrested and charged with additional counts of having sex with a person under the age of 16 years old.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com