A 48-year-old farmer was on Thursday sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for sodomizing a 12-year-old schoolboy on August 8, 2018.
Wazir Potter of Garden of Eden, East Bank of Demerara, was sentenced by Justice Brassington Reynolds at the Demerara High Court.
Last month a 12-member jury found Potter guilty of the offence; he was represented by attorney-at-law Teriq Mohammed, while Prosecutors Sarah Martin and Nafeeza Baig presented the State’s case.
In his defence, Potter claimed that the victim’s story was fabricated and pleaded innocence.
“I done no wrong…And if I do it, let God come down and cripple me right here,” the convict said in his defence.
In his probation report, which was read in court on Thursday, the court learnt that Potter left school at age 9 and went into farming with his grandfather. Additionally, Potter would frequently consume alcohol and smoke cigarettes.
The probation officer, who read the report in court, said that Potter betrayed the victim’s trust and has traumatised the child to the extent that he displayed suicidal tendencies, his grades dropped in school and he consequently became a school dropout.
The officer concluded that there is a possibility that the incident can make the victim more likely to become dysfunctional as an adult.
Potter, although being found guilty of the crime, maintained his innocence.
In his impact statement to the court, the victim said that he can now feel safe and secure knowing that Potters is behind bars.
Before imposing the sentence, Justice Reynolds told Potter that he should be separated from the rest of society, whose values and norms he goes against with his beastly actions.
The judge told Potter that he did not find any mitigation factors in his favour and sentenced him to 18 years imprisonment.
According to reports, the victim was walking along a track located at Garden of Eden, when Potter snatched him and took him to a house where he committed the act.
Potter reportedly threatened to kill the ald if he walked through the track again. The child made a complaint to his relatives about what Potter had done to him. The matter was reported, and Potter was arrested.
