Gardener Kishore Lutchman has been convicted and sentenced to 14 years in jail for committing sexual acts on a 10-year-old primary school student on four occasions dating back to ten years ago.
Lutchman, 57, of Penal Rock Road, Penal, was sentenced by Justice David Harris yesterday in the San Fernando Second Assizes, two month after a jury found him guilty on two counts of serious indecency and two counts of grievous sexual assault.
The State was represented by Sabrina Dougdeen-Jaglal and Sarah de Silva.
The prosecution’s case was that on September 2007 the accused committed the first act of serious indecency on the child at a house. However, he was interrupted by a neighbour, followed by her mother who arrived around the same time. The child was warned by the accused not to say anything.
On another occasion in that same month Lutchman allegedly made the child put on pornography DVD for them to watch. The child left and when she returned the accused pants was allegedly pulled down to his knees and he was playing with himself.
The third offence took place in a car in December 2007. And in January 2008 the accused allegedly went into the child’s bedroom and lay down next to her where he again sexually violated her. She was too afraid to tell her mother anything because he had threatened her.
The victim eventually confided in her school friend about the incidents and she (victim) subsequently told her mother. The accused was arrested at his home in May 2009 and charged by Sgt Dridgenath Sookraj.
In asking for leniency, his attorney Ainsley Lucky said Lutchman had never had any other matters in court.
Lucky, who presented 15 testimonials on Lutchman’s behalf, also submitted that the lead up to the trial had an adverse impact on the accused. “This man has paid a price spare him the rigours of incarceration,” Lucky had pleaded.
However, Dougdeen-Jaglal, in outlining several aggravating factors, asked the judge to consider the prevalence of these types of offences against women and young girls. She asked for a custodial sentence. The judge sentenced him to 14 years on each serious indecency charge and five years each on the other two charges. However, he ordered that the sentences run concurrently.