FORTY-six-year-old gambler Ray Thomas of Laing Avenue, Georgetown was found guilty of rape committed on an eight-year-old child in February 2012, and was yesterday jailed for 18 years.

This penalty was imposed on Thomas by Madam Justice Dawn Gregory after a mixed jury had earlier found him guilty of committing the crime with his fingers, which he had used to penetrate the child’s vagina.

The 10 women and two men who had comprised the jury returned a unanimous verdict that was built on the evidence of witnesses, who stated that the child had gone to the home of the accused to return a bag which her mother had borrowed when the accused used the opportunity to pull the girl into his bedroom and commit the crime despite cries from the child to “Stop! I want to go home!”

Following return of the unanimous verdict of guilty yesterday afternoon, Justice Gregory sentenced the accused to 18 years’ imprisonment.

After the judge had left the Bench, a relative of the child declared loud enough for spectators to hear: “The sentence should have been greater.”

The plait-haired accused took the sentence calmly. He had been on bail prior to conclusion of the case, and he had conducted his own defence.

State lawyers Miss Orienthea Schmidt and Miss Stacy Goodings prosecuted.