A strong message was sent to child molesters and would be child molesters on Thursday with Assistant Pastor Delroy Frazer being jailed for 30 years on charges of unlawful sexual intercourse.<\/p>\n
While Justice Brian Cottle is of the view that the man of the cloth could be rehabilitated, he thinks that removing him from society for a long period will reduce the possibility of him committing similar acts.<\/p>\n
On July 13, at the Criminal Assizes, a 9-member mixed jury found Frazer guilty on three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13. He committed the offences during the course of 2014, 2015 and 2016, and was slapped with one count for each year.<\/p>\n
Frazer was sentenced to 22 years on the first count, five years on the second count, and three years on the third count. The sentences are to run consecutively.<\/p>\n
Frazer had spent 25 days on remand which was taken into account in relation to first count. He had no previous convictions.<\/p>\n
Frazer, 43, who was an Assistant Pastor at a Church in Canouan had developed a very close friendship with the victim\u2019s family, but abused that trust by repeatedly having sex with the minor in the sea, at a beach in Canouan, and he did so in the presence of his little daughter.<\/p>\n
The victim was 5 years old at the time of the first ordeal. She is now 11.<\/p>\n
Justice Cottle said that instead of playing a father\u2019s role in the girl\u2019s life, Frazer abused her.<\/p>\n
“This is a grievous wrong that can never be righted\u201d, the Judge lamented.<\/p>\n
“It is horrible for any child to have to endure this\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n
Justice Cottle noted that the matter went through a full trial, and the child had to endure the painful experience of recounting the events.<\/p>\n
Reading from a victim impact statement, the Judge outlined that the child underwent dramatic flashbacks, nightmares, and lost confidence in all men.<\/p>\n
As a major aggravating factor, Cottle highlighted the fact that Frazer committed the offence in the presence of his little daughter, and even though she was small, and was left on the shore, she would have sensed that something strange was happening.<\/p>\n
In mitigation earlier, Frazer\u2019s lawyer Israel Bruce described his client as a family man, a husband, a father, and stepfather, who had spent considerable part of his life with the undertakings of the Church, but found himself in the tunnel of temptation.<\/p>\n
Bruce hopes that his client, in receiving whatever sentence the Court imposes, would have the opportunity to engage in the process of reconciliation with God, “So he would be able to say Lord forgive me\u201d.
\nBruce begged the Court to temper justice with mercy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A strong message was sent to child molesters and would be child molesters on Thursday with Assistant Pastor Delroy Frazer being jailed for 30 years on charges of unlawful sexual intercourse. While Justice Brian Cottle is of the view that the man of the cloth could be rehabilitated, he thinks that removing him from society<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":12787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-from-the-court"],"yoast_head":"\n