A self-confessed serial rapist who sought and received forgiveness from one of his victims, who he attacked in 2007, has been sentenced to a total of 30 years in prison for grievous sexual assault and abduction.
Kester Benjamin entered a plea agreement with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and was allowed to plead guilty to the offences earlier this year, but was only sentenced by High Court Judge Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds on Thursday.
According to the summary of facts in the case, which was read out during the hearing, the attack occurred on August 29, 2007, when the victim, then 17 years old, was returning home after attending classes at an institution in Petit Bourg.
The victim travelled to Port-of-Spain and was waiting for a taxi to take her to Diego Martin when she, a man and a couple boarded Benjamin’s car.
The victim claimed that he dropped the man and the couple off and left her for last, as her stop was “off-route.”
The victim claimed that she became worried when Benjamin drove past the turn-off for her stop and said that he claimed he had to pick up his wife and children first.
The victim said she was scared and was able to call a friend on her cellphone to tell her of what was transpiring. She claimed Benjamin drove up a steep incline and parked on a flat area bounding a precipice. She claimed she tried to call her uncle but he hit the phone from her hand and attempted to tie her up, but she resisted.
She claimed he then forced her to perform oral sex on him. Benjamin was about to rape her when a group of police officers who were on patrol in the area stopped next to the car and rescued her.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, the DPP’s Office agreed to recommend a 20-year sentence for grievous sexual assault and 10 years for the abduction.
Ramsumair-Hinds expressed reservations over the proposed sentences, as the one for the abduction charge was the maximum penalty in law. She still decided to adopt them after considering numerous Commonwealth cases.
Ramsumair-Hinds also had to consider a joint submission that the concurrent sentences should run from 2008, when he was convicted of an unconnected attack on a woman in 2002 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
While she said such a move would be permitted, she agreed to deduct the 15 years Benjamin spent in prison serving the previous sentence, as she accepted submissions from Deputy Chief Public Defender Raphael Morgan over his client’s inability to plead guilty to the charge until late last year due to delays in filing the indictments against him.
As a result, she ruled that Benjamin had already served his sentence for the abduction and had a little under five years to complete his sentence for grievous sexual assault.
In passing the sentence, Ramsumair-Hinds noted that his criminal record showed he had a pattern of escalating sexual deviance and advised him to seek psychiatric assistance upon his release.
“Pay attention to your proclivity so you can become a productive member of society we won’t be ashamed of in the future,” she said.
Benjamin appeared to accept the advice as he briefly addressed the court and thanked Ramsumair-Hinds for her handling of his case.
“I would try to rehabilitate myself and be a better person in society. I will do better in my life however long or short it is,” Benjamin said.
As part of his sentence, Ramsumair-Hinds ordered he register as a sex offender within seven days of his release and report to his nearest police station every two months for 10 years.
She also issued an order that the Commissioner of Police publish his name and information on the public sex offender website within 14 days.
Benjamin issued an apology to his victim when he was allowed to plead guilty months ago.
He said: “I know my words might not heal the hurt that I caused you and it will never heal the scars, but I want you to know that I am really, really sorry.”
Benjamin claimed it took him several years of introspection while in prison to realise his actions were due to his “sickness” of “extreme sexual perversion.”
“Now this is not an excuse, it is just an explanation and I think I owe you that explanation,” Benjamin said.
Benjamin claimed whilst in prison he enrolled in numerous programmes to help him curb his urges.
“I would not say that I am 100 per cent cured but I know what I have to abstain from to ensure that I don’t ever do something like what I did to you that night,” he claimed, as he noted he had to abstain from pornography.
“Most people do not understand sexual perversion. I have lived it and understand it so I would like to help other people going through this because most of society will just take people like me and shaft them because it is a crime nobody likes,” he said.
Benjamin claimed whilst in prison, his sister was similarly abducted and robbed but not raped.
“Hearing that made me understand what I was putting people through, and I decided then and there not to be the problem anymore but to become part of the solution,” Benjamin claimed.
Benjamin went as far as to extend an apology to his other victims, whose attacks he was acquitted for in the past.
“There are some cases that I won, and I did in fact commit the crime. I don’t know if I can apologise to those people as well,” he said.
Given an opportunity to respond to Benjamin’s statement, the victim, who was present, said she accepted his apology.
“It was not a good experience and is still not a good experience. I still feel all types of emotions, but I can accept your apology,” she said.
She said she hoped he could use his experience to positively help other similarly afflicted men.
“What you are going through is a sickness that did not start in your adult years. I am sure that there would be something that can be traced back to your childhood that you may not be aware of that would have caused you to be the way you are,” she said.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant DPP Danielle Thompson
