Appeal Court halves rapists’ sentences
THE local Appeal Court yesterday reduced by almost half, the 50-year sentence that Supreme Court judge Donald McIntosh imposed on 29 year-old cabinet-maker, Lynden Levy, who, along with several other men, raped two teenage girls and recorded the crime on videotape on January 11, 1999.
The court’s ruling, which came six months after it finished hearing the appeal, also halved the sentences of the four other men — Anthony Wallace, 32; Winston Ferguson, 60; Gairy Hylton, 36; and Patrick Evans, 44, — from 40 to 20 years.
All five were convicted in the Gun Court months after their arrest when Justice McIntosh found them guilty of luring the half-sisters to a secluded spot in Olympic Gardens, raped and forced them to perform a slew of obscene sexual acts under the threat of a gun.
The ordeal, which was perpetuated by a minimum of 11 men, lasted for about 24 hours and took place at a number of different locations.
Their lawyers, Dwight Reece, C J Mitchell and Earl Delisser, appealed the convictions and sentences on the basis that the taped evidence should not have been admitted and that the sentences were manifestly excessive.
Appeal Court judges Henderson Downer, F A Smith and Seymour Panton, while upholding the convictions, agreed with the lawyers that the sentences were extreme.
The punishment prescribed by the law for rape can fall anywhere between seven years and life imprisonment.