Mason Jason Martin was yesterday sentenced to ten years hard labour for the 2005 rape of a 13-year-old girl.
Martin was sentenced by Justice Maria Wilson in the San Fernando Third Assizes. He had pleaded guilty to the charge on May 18.
In summing up the case, Wilson said the incident took place on February 14, 2005, as the child was leaving her aunt’s home to return to her home a short distance away.
Wilson said the child lived four houses away from her aunt, but while passing a tamarind tree Martin grabbed her and dragged her into some bushes. He ordered her to remove her clothing and when she refused and screamed, he pushed her to the ground and got on top of her. He put his hand over her mouth and removed her pants. He then raped her.
The child tried escaping but became tangled in some vines and Martin held her down again. He then tried to sodomise the child but she had seen a light through the bushes and began screaming. He again placed his hand over her mouth, this time threatening to kill her if she told anyone of what he had done.
She managed to kick him and run off but on getting to her home she did not tell what Martin did to her. The next day, the child went back to her aunt’s house and told her what had happened. She was taken to the police where a report was made and she was taken for a medical examination which proved she had been raped.
The child later led police to Martin’s home, as she had known him for five months before the incident. At the time, Martin told WPC Cheryl Myers that the child was his girlfriend. He was arrested and charged.
In court yesterday, Wilson said the starting point for sentencing was 15 years hard labour. She said the aggravating factors for the offence were considered before the sentence could be handed down.
She said those factors were the prevalence of the offence, the seriousness, the fact that violence was used extensively during the act, the fact that Martin tried to sodomise the victim, the fact that he threatened to kill her and her age at the time of the offence. She found no mitigating factors in the offence.
Reading from the victim impact statement, Wilson said the victim is now 24 and has two young children.
In the report, the victim stated that she did not go back to school after the incident and has no formal education or vocational training. She added that she still lives in fear Martin will be let out of jail and harm her and her children.
She further stated that Martin often contacted her great-grandmother and tried to convince her to drop the charges. She said these calls made her very uncomfortable. She said she will never forgive Martin and she hoped he got a life sentence for his actions.
Wilson said the aggravating factors against Martin were his previous convictions for assault and his January 2016 conviction for another rape. She said the mitigating factor was that he pleaded guilty, sparing the victim the trauma of recounting the incident.
She said while the prison’s authority had reported that Martin was a good prisoner, the aggravating factors in the case outweighed the mitigating factors. She said one-third of Martin’s sentence was discounted for his guilty plea.
The time Martin spent awaiting trial in this matter, four years, eleven months and ten days, were also discounted from his sentence.
The sentence will be calculated from May 18, 2016, when Martin pleaded guilty.