Bahamas: 21-year-old man sentenced to 18 months for being sexually involved with a teen
A man was sentenced to 18 months behind bars on Thursday after having sex with a teenage girl.
Anton Johnson, 21, of Bel-Air Estates, was arrested in June after the 15-year-old’s father found out that he was sleeping with his daughter.
The prosecutor, ASP Clifford Daxon, said that the teenager confirmed the relationship. Doctors at Princess Margaret Hospital examined the child and verified that she was sexually active, Daxon said.
He pleaded guilty to three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse in connection with the couplings in January, February, and March of this year after Magistrate Samuel McKinney re-read the charges. He has no prior convictions.
In mitigation, attorney Craig Butler asked the magistrate not to impose a custodial sentence but instead give Johnson “a strong warning”.
Butler said that Johnson was 20 when the incidents occurred.
According to Butler, the case was not “a nasty, disgusting act with an older person and a younger person”.
Butler said had the matter gone to trial, the court could have discharged Johnson, as the complainant fell within the proviso age, and the court could have considered whether she looked older than 15.
He submitted, “The court never had the benefit of actually seeing the girl, but we know that he pleaded guilty to having sex.”
Butler said that young people are inundated with sexual images, as he described Johnson as “a young man whose hormones were overly active”.
In response, McKinney said he did not want it to appear that Johnson had been “robbed of his right to go to trial”.
He pointed out the offence carried a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
However, Butler pointed out that Johnson had elected summary trial and the magistrate’s sentencing cap was seven years.
McKinney said that young women should not be blamed. He said that “young men need to know what the law provides and govern themselves accordingly”.
Johnson’s sentence takes effect from June 25, the date of his remand.
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