St Helena man jailed for sex attack

TEARS flowed at the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court after the sentencing of a St Helena man found guilty of a series of sexual offences. Alan Jones of St Helena Village in Piarco was sentenced to ten years each for two counts of robbery with aggravation, and three years each for two counts of serious indecency and two counts of indecent assault. The sentences, all with hard labour, will run concurrently. Madame Justice Alice Soo-Hon had barely finished handing down the sentence, when she was challenged by one of Jones’ female relatives. “You all honestly believe he could rape two women? Oh Jesus, you send the wrong man to jail,” the sobbing woman concluded. She was immediately escorted out of the courtroom by the court marshall.  Just before he was led away, Jones, also in tears, insisted he was innocent. “I didn’t do this crime. It is really unfair. I am a hard-working man,” the emotional convict told Soo-Hon.

Jones was charged with robbing the two sisters and forcing them to perform acts of serious indecency on him. The offences, which occurred on May 10, 1997, took place at the home of the victims. One of the sisters was 17 at the time. In addressing the 27-year-old labourer, Soo-Hon recalled the mitigating factors submitted in his favour. She said there were many in the community who held him in high regard. However, they had refused to come to court to testify on his behalf. She referred to two testimonials that had been submitted by an officer of the law and a reverend. Both had described Jones as being respectable and hard-working.

The fact that Jones had two previous convictions for possession of narcotics, the judge said, had not been held against him and his offer of compensation to the victims on the day he was found guilty was taken into consideration. The offer had been rejected by the older of the victims. However, like the prosecution, Soo-Hon said she could find no redeeming factors in the evidence presented. She said Jones, with others, had waited on the victims and “pounced” on them. Based on the evidence, she said, the “events were planned and orchestrated.” The State, represented by Jennifer Martin and Angelica Teelucksingh, had called four witnesses. Three witness had been called by defence attorney Hayden St Clair Douglas.