Samuda Wants 25-year Minimum Sentence for High-profile Sex Offenders

The Gleaner
February 3, 2017

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20170203/samuda-wants-25-year-minimum-sentence-high-profile-sex-offenders

Samuda

Government Senator, Matthew Samuda, wants legislation to be introduced setting a mandatory minimum sentence for persons in positions of trust and responsibility who commit sex crimes, especially against children.

Speaking in the State of the Nation debate in the Senate this morning, Samuda said these offenders should spend between 25 and 30 years in prison before being released.

He argued that the country is facing extraordinary times as it relates to sex crimes against children and the society must send a signal that it will not tolerate these behaviours.

Senator Samuda also expressed dismay at the revelation made this week by the Head of the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, Superintendent Enid Ross-Stewart, that pastors and policemen are among the most prevalent high-profile perpetrators of sexual offences against minors.

She made the disclosure while addressing a parliamentary committee reviewing Jamaica’s sexual offences laws.

There has been much public outcry about sexual abuse in the Church after three members of the Moravian church in Jamaica were arrested and charged with allegedly having sex with children.