Hay-Webster Sharon Hay-Webster, Member of Parliament for South Central St. Catherine, yesterday expressed grave concern about the discretion given to judges to order non-custodial sentences for some sex offenders.
Hay-Webster, speaking at yesterday's meeting of the Joint Select Committee of Parliament considering a range of sexual offences, raised the matter as one that should be addressed.
Uncomfortable
She was responding, in part, to a recent press report concerning a suspended sentence for an offender, in which the victim was a minor.
"People are a little bit uncomfortable that, here we are, discussing these changes, and while we are in this current environment, here is this judgment that has been arrived at and this child (the victim) will be affected for the rest of her life!" she said. Pressing the matter further, the MP asked whether there was "any way that we can avoid a judge being given the room to give that kind of ruling".
Senator AJ Nicholson, the Attorney-General, who chairs the committee, quickly reminded her that "a suspended sentence is a legitimate sentence!"
Elaborating on the issue, Senator Nicholson said, while members of the public might question whether a particular sentence was appropriate, in the circumstances, this was a matter for the judge to determine, within the ambit of the law.
Privy Council ruling
Furthermore, he pointed out, the country's final court of appeal, the UK-based Privy Council, had ruled against Parliament legislating mandatory or minimum sentences, largely leaving such matters to the discretion of judges. "All we can do is to ask judges to take into account the feelings of the society," said the Attorney-General.
Albert Edwards, acting chief parliamentary counsel, said the matter of sentencing guidelines was addressed, in part, in the Criminal Justice Reform Act.
Later, during the sitting of the committee, a representative of the Correctional Services Department and government member, Senator Donna Scott Mottley, an attorney-at-law, both pointed out that the court often takes relevant social inquiry reports into account when considering sentencing options. These reports are not made public.
