Kenrick Morrison, who is said to be in his 70s, and was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for engaging in sexual activity with an underage girl, has gone to the Court of Appeal where he is requesting that his conviction and sentence be overturned.
His case was called this afternoon. In September 2015, Morrison was found guilty of the offence by a 12-person jury at the High Court in Demerara.
He had initially denied the charge, which alleged that on February 12, 2013, he engaged in sexual activity with a child under the age of 16. In his grounds of appeal, Morrison, among other things, is arguing that trial Judge Jo-Ann Barlow misdirected the jurors when she made errors while summing up the evidence.
The sexual offence convict further argues that the trial judge’s summing up was unbalanced as it was in favour of the prosecution.
Before passing the sentence on Morrison, Justice Barlow noted the strict view the law and society take regarding such offences against children and added that the sentence must be reflective of this view. That further, the judge strongly upbraided Morrison for the position of trust he breached in committing the crime.
The judge had noted too that the offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years but held that no mitigating factors were presented to the court on the convict’s behalf. As a consequence, Morrison was sentenced to serve seven years behind bars for the offence.
