Man pleads guilty to buggery of 4-year-old

A 30-year-old man from Barataria pleaded guilty yesterday before Justice Rajendra Narine at the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court to buggering a 4-year-old girl in 1990. He will be sentenced on Monday.

According to State Prosecutor Nalini Singh, on October 22, 1990, the 4-year-old victim was playing in the yard of John Gregory Howell. He called her into his house, gave her a cake, removed her underwear and buggered her. The girl was crying and bleeding when she returned to her mother. Howell, who was 17 at the time, told the victim’s mother that she had fallen on a nail and injured herself but when confronted by the police, Howell said he had lost control of himself and that he did not know what he was doing. Howell’s attorney, Keith Scotland said that his client’s behaviour on that day must be described as reprehensible and that the Court must show abhorrence to this type of offence.

Scotland revealed that while out on bail, Howell went missing from 1997 and became a fugitive from the law. However, Scotland said that Howell was not a hardened criminal who was beyond redemption and that the Court should take into consideration certain mitigating factors. Scotland pointed out that since 1990, Howell had no other altercations with the law, the incident in 1990 was not pre-meditated and Howell by his guilty plea, opted not to waste the Court’s time. Scotland said that his client had some academic prowess having passed for St Mary’s College after he wrote the 14 Plus examinations at Morvant/Laventille Junior Secondary but because of his actions, he had failed his 4-year-old neighbour, his family and most of all himself.